After a second meeting to discuss the current budget crisis,
members of the Upper San Juan Hospital District Board approved a
short-term solution that left the clipping shears on the table at a
special meeting Monday.

"I will propose a three-step, three-point plan of action," Bob
Huff, a board member said following nearly three hours of discussion.
"Point one, I propose that we do not cut services at this time. Point
two, we immediately begin working to negotiate a loan from the Dr.
Mary Fisher Foundation. Point three, we declare tonight our intention
to go to the voters in November for a mill increase sufficient to
support EMS services."

Subsequently, the last two points were amended into motions and
approved unanimously by the board, a shift in direction from the June
29 special meeting when the board seemed determined to make cuts or
raise additional revenue with fee increases to stabilize the budget
prior to asking for a levy increase.

Dick Babillis, chairman of the district board and interim district
manager, said after spending a week studying the impacts of reducing
EMS services or personnel on the community, it was obvious to him
that the greater danger lay in making the cuts.

"After the last meeting, I decided, we're dead (without making
cuts)," he said. "Then I decided we're dead if we do and dead if we
don't. Now, we're dead if we do."

Only one staff cut has been made to date. Following a June 29
executive session, the board approved dismissal of Mary Fletcher,
Upper San Juan Hospital District office manager and bookkeeper.
Babillis said specifics concerning the decision to release Fletcher
were unavailable until some personal issues could be settled.

Staff scenarios

In a presentation to the board, Rod Richardson, EMS operations
manager, said even cutting three paramedics, which would eliminate
the 24-hour in-quarters service, and reducing salaries 10 percent
across the board, would net around $86,000 in savings, $52,000 short
of the projected $127,000 shortfall.

On the revenue side, he said, recent increases in the cost of
ambulance services have started to pay off. In June of 2000, EMS
recorded 50 transports, billing a total of about $28,000. During June
this year, the first month of the rate hike, EMS recorded 63
transports, an estimated $48,000 in revenue.

According to estimates presented by Babillis based on population
numbers released in the Community Plan, the trend in the number of
calls answered by EMS is on the rise. Between 1990 and 2000, the
number of calls jumped from 208 to 1,086 while the county's
population increased from 5,250 to near 10,000.

Laura Rome, Dr. Mary Fisher Medical Center office administrator,
reported that the medical center staff continued to work on ways to
increase revenue for the year. Options include selling some unused
equipment, encouraging doctors to see more patients per day, working
to bring in more specialists, streamlining the billing office, and
increasing fees for jail services, chiropractic X-rays, drug
screenings for businesses and the Urgent Care facility.

The two reports were responses to a June 29 hospital district
board request to create scenarios for shaving an estimated $177,000
off their combined 2001 budgets. Based on separated budget
shortfalls, Richardson of EMS, was asked to cut $126,095 and Rome was
given a goal of $50,000.

The $127,000 figure for EMS was based entirely on expected budget
shortfall. The medical center number included $24,576 in shortfall
and another $24,424 as partial payback for some tax dollars received
from the district when the center was in a financial crunch several
years ago. Overspending, budgeting errors and misinformation not
caught by the district board were cited as the reasons for the
current crisis.

Public concerns

The amount of tax dollars provided to the medical center and the
burden of cuts place on the EMS side of the district street was a
point of misunderstanding and contention from members of the audience
throughout the Monday meeting.

Some audience members questioned why the clinic should be part of
the district when patients involved in an emergency can't always be
treated there, and everyone in the community doesn't choose to see a
physician there.

Others related the feeling of continuous pressure resulting from
budget crunches and rumors of cutting personnel.

"Every time something new is found we seem to be playing Russian
roulette with the paramedics," Kathy Conway, of EMS, said. "Our jobs
have been threatened over and over and we still have to feed our
families."

Answering questions

Faced with providing service based on a levy that hasn't increased
since about 1986 while calls, transports, staff and equipment needs
have grown, Conway said, EMS has existed as long as it can under the
pressure.

"We continued in this trend and now we can't fit in the box
anymore," she said. "We haven't had the budget raised to meet the
population needs, equipment needs. We need more income to provide the
patient care that we've been doing."

In response, besides attempting to clarify the facts, members of
the board, and others in the audience continued to advocate pulling
together as a team over the budget issues.

"The subsidy that went to the clinic is over," Huff said. "That's
not an ongoing thing."

Because of its enterprise status, the Dr. Mary Fisher Medical
Center is allowed to receive a maximum of 10 percent of operating
expenses in tax revenues with approval of the district board, a
support that hasn't been needed recently.

Board member Bill Downey said when the district was formed,
creating an urgent care facility was the board's overriding goal. To
do that, he said, experts advised the board that some ancillary
services to support the urgent care - a potential cash drain - would
be needed. That's where the medical center came in to play. It also
provides a place where anyone, including those on Medicaid and the
indigent, can receive medical care, he said.

A final loan figure, or the amount available to the district from
the foundation's endowment fund, was not determined at Monday's
meeting. Representatives of the board plan to present the plea for
assistance to the foundation board at its regular meeting this
evening.

County dog licensing
plan meets howls of protest

By John M. Motter

A public hearing on proposed dog legislation in Archuleta County,
attracting a standing-room-only crowd of perhaps 75 people,
surrounded the county commissioners Tuesday night.

"This document is not set in stone," Gene Crabtree, chairman of
the board of county commissioners, said of the proposal. "Some of the
provisions are already in effect. Mostly, we just added licensing.
We're here tonight to gather information. There will be no vote
tonight and we're not here to penalize anyone."

The document referred to by Crabtree is a draft of a proposed
county resolution designed for "the vaccination, control, licensing,
and impoundment of dogs in Archuleta County."

"We're drafting new dog rules because we get criticized by you,"
Crabtree told the audience. "You complain about loose dogs, and some
of you say they are terrorizing your kids."

Public reaction to the proposed resolution was mixed. Opposition
came from ranching interests and from people who appeared to raise
dogs for resale. Others opposed on grounds that, if current dog
control regulations are enforced new regulations won't be needed, and
the proposal "just represents increased bureaucracy."

Many argued that a rabies tag should be sufficient without adding
the licensing requirement. No one opposed vaccination requirements.

Arguments from the public for or against the proposal seemed to
split depending on where in the county the respondent lives. Ranchers
tended to oppose the proposal. Residents from certain subdivisions,
especially Aspen Springs, argued for the proposal, as did residents
from unincorporated areas not identified with subdivisions.

Speaking for the Archuleta County Cattleman's Association, former
county commissioner Bob Formwalt presented a position that seemed to
represent many in the audience.

"We strongly oppose this resolution as it is presented here
today," Formwalt said. "The resolution, if passed, will be a
discriminatory, unnecessary burden upon all Archuleta County
agricultural producers. If you are serious about this resolution, it
must have major rewording in order to not penalize agricultural
producers who have and use dogs in their daily operations."

Formwalt argued that dogs are tools of the agricultural trade and
should no more be licensed than the hammers used by carpenters or the
books used by teachers.

"Why don't you just declare food and fiber production an
undesirable and unneeded profession in this county and go ahead and
shut us all down?" Formwalt argued. "You are slowly regulating and
taxing us out of existence with these kinds of actions."

Formwalt and others argued for exemption from licensing for all
dogs used for agricultural purposes.

"If the subdivisions want this ordinance, make it apply to them,"
Formwalt said. "It is their dogs that give us the trouble, not ours;
and we have legal methods with which to address the problem."

Others arguing against the proposal say a rabies tag should be
sufficient, without adding the licensing requirement. Still others
say enforcement of the resolution will be costly and ineffective.
They say if the problem of loose and nuisance dogs is so large the
sheriff cannot handle it now, the addition of one dog catcher will
not solve the problem.

Another opposition argument holds that the proposal penalizes the
many responsible dog owners who take care of their dogs in order to
control a few irresponsible dog owners.

"If they don't take care of their dogs now, what makes you think
they will buy licenses and obey the law in the future," these people
ask.

Another opposition position is held by people who raise dogs
commercially. These people say the resolution does not address needs
peculiar to their vocations and suggested appropriate changes.

A sizable group of opponents argued that the proposal is unneeded
and creates another layer of unneeded bureaucracy at taxpayer
expense.

Several people from the audience argued for the proposal. They
complained of harassment from loose dogs when they attempt to walk in
their neighborhoods and at other times. They argue that answering dog
complaints places a heavy burden on the sheriff's department, absorbs
time from deputies trained for other purposes, and detracts from
other departmental obligations.

They argue that licensing is necessary in order to identify dogs,
identify their owners, and to raise funds for enforcement of loose
dog regulations, including those regulations already on the county
books. They say enforcement of loose dog regulations is a bigger
problem than the sheriff's department can currently take care of.

The commissioners took no action at the meeting. Instead, they
promised to re-write the proposed resolution incorporating
suggestions from the public hearing that they think are necessary
additions or changes.

Teacher shortage
creates hard task for school

By Richard Walter

A shortage of available teachers throughout the Southwest has hit
in Pagosa Springs as administrators try to fill key gaps in their
respective building staffs prior to the opening of school late next
month.

Superintendent Duane Noggle, attending his first school board
meeting in that capacity, said he "thought I had left that problem
behind in Arizona, but it seems to be widespread in the region."

There currently are vacancies for elementary school principal and
dean of students; a music teacher for the junior high school, and for
an additional full-time counselor and a business teacher at the high
school.

Until Tuesday night, there had been two additional vacancies.
Acting on administrative recommendations, the board hired Jim
Schaffer, now a high school coach in Evanston, Wyo., as the new high
school boys' basketball coach and as Intermediate School /Junior High
School physical education teacher; and Pam Monteferrante as junior
high school language arts teacher.

Schaffer replaces Scott Moore (whose resignation was accepted the
same night) at the lower school level and will replace Kyle Canty as
the high school coach.

Though they had formally known of Cyndy Secrist's resignation as
elementary principal, the board of Archuleta District 50 Joint had
not met since receiving the resignation and formally adopted it
Tuesday.

The search for a replacement has not been easy, Noggle said. The
short time span available before school begins is one of the factors
in the shortage. He told the board six applications were filed and
that he had intended to submit a list of three finalists that night.

However, he said, one of the candidates withdrew his application
Monday. Another candidate was to be interviewed Wednesday and another
may come in later in the week. Noggle said he hopes to have a
finalist for the position by a special meeting called for 5 p.m. July
19.

At the same special meeting, the board hopes to be able to fill
all remaining teacher openings and to receive bids and possibly award
contracts for construction of new facilities at Golden Peaks Stadium.

Asked by the board where the current principal candidates are
from, Noggle said two are from Pagosa. Two others to be interviewed
are from out of town.

Director Clifford Lucero commented, "with the shortage of
qualified personnel, we're fortunate to have local people were who
are qualified to step in."

The high school staffing problem was detailed by Principal Bill
Esterbrook.

He told the board "one thing of great concern to us is the
overload on our full time counselor. Mark Thompson is a genius at his
job but with growing class sizes and the needs of the kids expanding,
we need to add a second full time counselor."

"We had a candidate," he said, "but our first inclination was to
make it a half-day job and she was not interested in working half
time."

"Now," he said, "we're looking at moving the yearbook consultant
and counseling secretarial post into a curricular position and
utilizing Sally (Riggs) Capistrant, a PHS graduate, in the counselor
position. She lacks minor degree classes, but can make them up on the
Internet. In the meantime, we can get her an alternate license."

Directors Russ Lee and Carol Feazel agreed with the move, Lee
saying, "With the shortage of teachers it seems the best way to go.
We need to be constructive in our hiring plans."

Esterbrook said his school also has a vacancy in the business
education department. He said three candidates had turned town the
job and another was due to interview Wednesday. "We hope to be able
to recommend a candidate at the special meeting July 19."

"We can't wait any longer," he said. "We need to act now. The
candidates we're looking at have worked successfully in industry. We
would have to grant one of them a 60-day license and time to qualify
for an alternative license."

On another personnel issue, the board conducted a 44-minute
executive session, calling only John Rose, transportation director,
and after returning to open session, directed Noggle to "investigate
the allegations which have been made with reference to the
transportation director and work toward a speedy resolution of the
issue."

There was no specification of what those accusations were nor
where they originated. Noggle said he'd attempt to have a report
ready by the July 19 meeting.

Inside The Sun

Commissioners refuse to
release economic development funds

By John M. Motter

County commissioners Gene Crabtree and Bill Downey bumped heads
Tuesday over a request from the Archuleta Economic Development
Association that escrow funds be released up front to pay for utility
installation at the Cloman Industrial Park.

Mary Weiss, the county attorney, advised the commissioners that,
according to a contract signed by both parties, escrow funds held in
this instance serve as security insuring that the work be
satisfactorily performed and should not be released until the work is
done.

Crabtree argued that, in the past, the county had released escrow
funds to pay for utility installation prior to the installation.
Based on the prior policy, Crabtree argued, the same policy should be
followed now.

"I have a difficult time going against a contract that all parties
have signed," said Downey. "The county has given a fair amount of
support to this organization in the past. From certain aspects,
Archuleta Economic Development Corporation has been favored with an
advantage over other developers. I'm not sure that is proper."

Because only Crabtree and Downey attended the regular Tuesday
meeting of county commissioners, a one-to-one stalemate ensued and no
action was taken.

Archuleta Economic Development Association is responsible for
administering and selling property it owns in the industrial
development adjacent to Stevens Field. The organization receives
income as lots are sold in the industrial park. AEDA is made up of
members from the local government and business communities.

AEDA this week asked the county to release escrow funds to be paid
to utility companies for installing utilities on industrial park
properties. The 1996 Phase 1 improvements agreement between AEDA and
the county authorized former county manager Dennis Hunt to release
funds before the work was done.

A current improvements agreement written in 2000 and known as
Phase 2 specifies that a report certifying that the work is
satisfactorily done be received from the county engineer before funds
are released.

"We are not working with a little old developer," said Crabtree.
"We are working with a sound entity," implying that the county should
release the funds.

After some discussion with no resolution because Crabtree and
Downey disagreed, and because the third commissioner, Alden Ecker,
was not present to break the stalemate, the subject was dropped.

In other business Tuesday the commissioners:

- After listening to Downey say he is a member of the Upper San
Juan Hospital District board of directors and might be perceived as
having a conflict of interest on an action concerning the district,
Crabtree said no conflict exists. Subsequently, he and Downey
approved letters from the county endorsing a hospital district grant
application and a hospital district proposal to raise funds from
trucking company donations

- Appointed Ann Shepherdson of the U.S. Forest Service to the weed
control district board of directors replacing Bob Frye, who resigned

- Agreed to waive Archuleta County landfill fees for disposing of
tires, as requested by the Pagosa Quarter Midget Association, a
non-profit corporation

- Waived county rent charges assessed against the county social
services department for space in the new Town Hall. The rent was
waived because the social services department is not likely to move
into new quarters until January of next year. The delay is said to be
caused by telephone problems

- Set a July 19, 10 a.m. time for a workshop concerning county
funds received from the U.S. Forest Service

- At the insistence of Downey, postponed approval of a Conditional
Use Permit for the Econolodge Motel until the commissioners can
conduct a public hearing. Discussion on this subject included a
comment from Weiss that the commissioners could probably act at
Tuesday's meeting because the agenda announcement served as public
notice. Crabtree said, "What difference does it make if we okay this
today? It's just a matter of formality." Two people from the audience
supported Downey's contention that the agenda listing is inadequate
public notice. In the end, a public hearing was set for next
Tuesday's regular commissioner meeting

- A road improvement performance bond for Ridgeview Mall was
extended two weeks, or as needed

- Approval was given for intersection lighting changes at Piedra
Road and Solomon Drive

- Announced that two men have been invited to visit Pagosa Springs
to be interviewed in connection with filling the vacant Director of
County Development position

- Said nothing new is being done concerning hiring a county
administrator

- Announced certain commissioners are attending the Upper San Juan
Builders Association picnic Saturday where Crabtree will discuss
county actions connected with a proposed sales tax renewal election.

Town begins enforcement
on sign ordinances this Sunday

By Tess Noel Baker

Enforcement of a town ordinance requiring
permits for all signs inside town boundaries begins Sunday.

At that time, all temporary signs, including
banners and pennants, must be either permitted or removed, Chris
Bentley, town planner, said.

The Pagosa Springs Board of Trustees
approved an amendment in May adding temporary signs, defined as "any
device used for the purpose of advertising, attracting attention, or
accenting a business location that is intended to be displayed for a
limited period of time ... and for which a permanent sign permit
under Ordinance 415 Section II is not required," to the overall sign
ordinance.

The move was in response to town staff and
board observation as well as citizens' complaints concerning the
number of banners popping up around town and staying up for months on
end.

Under the revised ordinance, permitted
temporary signs can be displayed free for 14 days in each calendar
year. After that, a fee of $1 per square foot of sign per month will
be charged until it is removed. Ten weeks per calendar year is the
maximum any temporary sign can be displayed.

Temporary signs are also now counted in the
aggregate square footage allowed for signage at an individual
location.

Three school board
terms ending, two will run

By Richard Walter

Three incumbent directors on the board of
education for Archuleta School District 50 Joint have terms expiring
this year and at least one, Jon Forrest, will not be seeking
reelection.

The others, Carol Feazel and Clifford
Lucero, indicated at Tuesday's board meeting that they will run
again.

At the same time, Superintendent Duane
Noggle said his office will contact the county to get comparative
costs for the county handling the petition process and election as
compared to having the school administration run it.

And, he said, "we need to consider putting a
term-limit issue on the fall ballot."

Director Russ Lee, while agreeing the public
should have the chance to make the decision (on term limits), said
"it would be nice not to have it."

Feazel agreed. "The directors with the least
tenure need the most time to learn this position. I'm completing my
first term and I'm still learning."

Lucero said, though schools can waive the
term limits law, "I think we need to put it on the ballot and let the
people decide."

Director Randall Davis, board president,
said "since it is a time-consuming volunteer position, it makes it
very difficult for us to get qualified candidates who have the time
to serve."

Feazel said the voters already have a
term-limit right. "If they want to limit a term, they just need to
vote the person out of office."

In other action, the board:

- Learned from Lee that the district's costs
for participation in Board of Cooperative Services will increase for
the next year by $5,614, representing the district's share of 6.07
percent pay increases granted to cooperative staff

- Heard a brief report from Lee on status of
Archuleta Scholarships in Escrow, indicating the current student
earnings figure stands at $328,000. He noted realtor donations have
"helped tremendously" and Nancy Schutz, business manager, said "It's
a great program. Anyone who gets the grades gets the money."

- Formally adopted an irrigation agreement
with the Town of Pagosa Springs and Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation
District for watering of athletic fields in the Sports Complex with
river water rather than potable (treated) water. "It makes a lot of
sense," said Lee. "We may save a little money, but more importantly,
we'll save potable water."

- Adopted revisions to district policy that
had been ironed out last month for action at this meeting. Revisions
were in the Fair Share Policy, in the specifications for staff fringe
benefits, sick/personal leave, classified salary schedule and use of
privately owned vehicles

- Learned the staff has been unable to find
the original agreement allowing use of school-owned property in Vista
for a quarter-midget race track. Each director recalled the agreement
specifying that program backers would restore the area to its
original status after the use terminated. Lucero told the board the
county had waived the dumping fee for the backers to deposit the
rubbish from the site at no cost. The board had directed the
administration last month to order the site vacated and cleaned up
because of numerous complaints about its appearance. "At the very
least," said Davis, "we want the slope regraded and seeded - after
all the junk is removed."

Look for dry skies as
rain moves out

By John M. Motter

Pagosa Country's first monsoon of the season
should move out early next week leaving "warmer and drier" in its
wake, according to Gary Chancy, a National Weather Service forecaster
from Grand Junction.

At the same time, to the relief of revelers
enjoying Pagosa Country's three-day 4th of July celebration, last
week's downpours failed to interrupt the parade, rodeo, and other
activities.

The chance for afternoon and evening
thundershowers remains at the 30 percent level today, then decreases
as night approaches, Chancy said. By tomorrow and Saturday the chance
for scattered showers decreases to 20 percent. Through Sunday,
Monday, and Tuesday of next week, the last vestige of monsoon rains
will be gone from the area, leaving warmer and drier
conditions.

Controlling local weather will be a low
pressure area moving down the West Coast. Counterclockwise winds from
the low will change the direction of prevailing winds. During the
monsoon onslaught, winds entered Pagosa from the south bearing
moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. With the new low in place,
prevailing winds will come from the west packing little
moisture.

High temperatures through Saturday should
range between 80 and 85 degrees, according to Chancy, with overnight
lows ranging between 50 and 55 degrees. Starting Sunday, highs could
drift into the low 90-degree range with lows around 55-60
degrees.

The official high temperature last week was
the 88 degrees measured Sunday at the National Weather Service
gauging station located at Stevens Field. Temperatures have not
reached the 90-degree level this season. High temperatures last week
ranged between 84 degrees and 88 degrees with an average high
temperature of 86 degrees.

The lowest temperature was 51 degrees on
Thursday. Low temperatures ranged between 51 degrees and 54 degrees
with an average low reading of 53 degrees.

Precipitation for the week totaled 0.22
inches including 0.20 inches Sunday and 0.02 inches Tuesday. Through
July 7, the monthly total is 0.24 inches. July rainfall averages 1.63
inches.

Forest Service moves to
protect native grasses

By John M. Motter

Officials from the Pagosa Ranger District
are soliciting public comment concerning a proposed Cimarrona Horse
campground and trailhead project.

Cimmarona is located north of Williams Creek
Lake. It is a jumping-off point for trails leading into the Weminuche
Wilderness Area including the Cimmarona Trail.

"With this particular project we are trying
to fill a need while protecting resources," said Rick Jewell,
Environmental Coordinator for the Pagosa Ranger District. "When the
project is completed, we'll close off that area north of Williams
Creek to dispersed camping. Most of the native grasses and fescues
are gone, replaced by dandelions.

Dispersed camping is camping on unimproved,
unofficial, sites according to Jewell. Dispersed campers merely pull
off of the road at a site they like and set up camp.

Public input concerning the proposal is
being sought until July 27. Ecosphere of Durango is working on an
Environmental Assessment for the site.

A U.S. Forest Service horse campground
requires more space than ordinary campgrounds. Space is provided for
either corralling or tethering horses, horse feed storage, parking
horse trailers, and camping for horse owners.

Horse owners camping at horse campsites are
required to bring feed, either pellets or weed-free hay, said Jewell.
They are not allowed to graze horses on surrounding grasses.

As justification for the proposed site, a
forest service document reads, "Dispersed recreation has been
steadily increasing in the upper Williams Creek area over the last
ten years. A large percentage of this increased use has been from
horse users. Along with this use has come an increase in the amount
of dispersed camping. This has resulted in new access roads
established across meadows as well as the expansion of dispersed
campgrounds."

These activities have resulted in a
significant impact on area parks and meadows and native vegetation,
according to the report. Native forbs and grasses are on the decline
as is overall health of parks. Some meadows have lost one-third of
their native species, with dandelions becoming the primary vegetative
cover.

Temporary horse corrals have resulted in an
increase in bare soil. Erosion is increasing as travel routes across
meadows are established and corral use expands.

Winners in the 2001 Fourth of July Parade, with the theme "Land
That We Love," were announced the following day.

In the commercial division, first place and $100 went to Pine
Ridge Extended Care Center, second and $40 to Canyon REO, and third
place and $25 was awarded to Buckskin Towing.

In the non-profit division, Mountain Harmony Ladies Barbershop
Chorus was first and got the $100 prize, San Juan Outdoor Club was
second for $50 and Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce was third.

In the youth division, first place and $100 went to the High
School Pirate Cheerleaders, second was a tie with $40 to Archuleta
County 4H and Rocky Mountain Riders and to Pagosa Pirate Marching
Band.

In the individuals category, Faye Brown was first for $100, Mike
Danielson Family second for $50 and Majestick Andalusians third for
$25.

Most Patriotic entry and the $100 prize went to Mountain Harmony
Ladies Barbershop Chorus.

Judges for the parade were Lela Martinez of Dulce, N.M., Marlene
Milton of Walker, La., Mary and Vinnie Burr of Sarasota, Fla., and
Norvell Hernandez of Ruidoso Downs, N.M.

Letters

Civic forum

Dear Editor,

Some Archuletans believe that overwhelming challenges in our
county are exceeding our capacity to manage them effectively. In our
research, we're learning how other communities unite their citizens
to meet challenges. A concept we recently introduced to Archuleta's
citizens is that of the increasingly popular civic forum.

A civic forum is simply an opportunity and a place for citizens to
gather. It is not an organization. It's a tool. It enables us to meet
each other, share ideas, and create a meaningful and unified
community. It offers each individual various opportunities to find
constructive ways to contribute their energy, skills, and knowledge.
It offers all of us a place to unearth our community's hidden
treasures.

Unlike individual organizations, where people of a more singular
interest meet, the great thing about the civic forum is that it can
bring everybody together with the broader common interest that we are
all citizens who want the best for our community. It can also provide
a common thread to pull all our precious resources together in a
collaborative way to more realistically and efficiently serve our
community's needs. Seventy-five local organizations were invited for
this very reason.

Approximately 135 folks showed up for our first forum. Our forum
goal was to encourage citizens to turn their frustrations into
positive actions and start unifying our entire community, so we can
work toward meaningful common-ground solutions that represent our
citizens' diversity.

For the purpose of this forum, each participant selected one of
three main study groups - community planning issues and
implementation; building strong community leadership; or developing
citizen information, education, and communication forums and
networks. The citizens were amazingly productive in the short time
allotted; they have now taken the first step!

Step two is to bring citizens together again, before the next
forum, to prioritize their action ideas by importance, immediacy, and
achievability and determine which recommendations they wish to focus
their energy and resources on. We have many commitments from folks to
start moving us forward to the next step - some already met this week
to start building a citizen network to keep everyone "connected"
between forums.

Participants overwhelmingly approved of the forum concept and
agreed to another on Sept. 10, 7 p.m., at the Extension building. All
citizens are needed if we can ever really hope to make this a true
community - the kind of place it used to be before growth got a
stranglehold on us. I express my gratitude to each and every citizen
that made this workshop their priority - every opinion counts, so,
please, stay involved. Others who want to see this be the kind of
place we are all happy to call "home," can call 731-3138.

Karen Aspin

Professional needed

Dear Editor,

I read with interest in the 28 June issue that the Commissioners
are in disagreement over the issue of a County Manager position. One
commissioner states that he feels he is not qualified to take on his
share of that role while the other two believe the current
arrangement is going "quite well." At the same time, Commissioner
Crabtree is quoted as saying "If you believe we [the Commissioners]
are hired to work full time, then we don't necessarily need a county
manager."

The issue brought out by these discussions is an important one and
one that did not get enough airing during the election last fall. I,
for one, don't believe the Commissioners were "hired." They were
elected to provide leadership and to represent the needs and
aspirations of the people who live in Archuleta County. I voted for
candidates on the basis of their vision for the future of this County
and not on the basis of their managerial experience or skills.
Frankly, none of the commissioners are qualified to be managers of
county governments. That is not their background nor should it be.

There is a great tendency by some to say "I am busy and therefore
I must be doing a good job." The commissioners are certainly busy and
I believe hard at work. The question for all of us is whether what
they are doing is in the best interest of our collective future.
There is a great possibility that the busy-work they are doing
prevents them from attending to the future. There is also a great
possibility that, if and when they hire a qualified person to
properly manage the operations of all county offices, the
commissioners will interfere with the day-to-day operations of the
departments. This is almost assured given the commissioners current
on-the-job-training. No good county manager would stay under those
circumstances.

Elected officials are critical elements in any governmental
structure. They are there to assure that all points of view (and not
just those of a powerful minority) are represented in defining and
then assuring a vision for the future. Their big task is to represent
our needs and aspirations, to argue over substantive issues, to make
tough policy decisions, to honestly solicit our input and our
support, to assure a highly effective county administration, to hold
a county manager responsible for effectively executing the vision,
and to take the heat when their decisions don't meet with universal
approval.

I think that is a full-time job. If it isn't then the answer may
be to reduce the time the commissioners work, along with their pay.
The answer is not for these individuals to create work for themselves
by inserting themselves into the role of managers. That is the job
for a professional.

Tom Cruse

No grip on reality

Dear Editor,

According to the brand new 2001 Archuleta County Condensed Budget
tourist booster booklet, the airport brings in $13 million per year,
but somehow the two budget wranglers have seen fit to hijack $200,000
from the general fund to fix the taxiway at Stevens Field with an
even more expensive "Band Aid."

Add to this the fact that the EMS needs $177,000 to bail itself
out. I'd rather see the EMS stay afloat than worry about contributing
the public's money to further fatten high-flying land sharks and
dismantle what's left of the county intrinsic value quicker. We
should not be spending a fortune on the fortunate. The airport gets
hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for what? Nothing.

County road and bridge resources should not be spent at the
airport, either.

It's an absolute insult for a current commissioner to say that
Archuleta County has no savior or nobody who really has the solutions
to our problems. I know of at least 10 people who have plenty of
solutions to critical issues.

This commissioner doesn't even know what a real issue is let alone
see any solutions. He also has no idea of how to build a road and
won't fix Stevens Field either. Can he name us one road in Archuleta
County that has been built right? Nope, but how many did he
participate in building?

In Archuleta County anybody with a loader and a dump truck is a
road builder and anybody with a hammer is a carpenter and these are
the only standards we seem to live by. It's sort of a blind and
crippled way of doing business.

Archuleta County votes to exempt itself from any standards on
construction of anything and everything. This commissioner hit the
ground running from special interests to banks. It's just a further
rip-off of an impoverished, defenseless county.

If two commissioners can conspire on projects, they can make a
budget for anything they want because they can over-vote the
remaining commissioner and they have just set a bad precedent. Are
these two going to do the same for all county departments that they
just did for the airport? And another thing, if the airport is such a
desperate liability case, they should shut it down until it has
enough of its own money to correct itself.

Two commissioners have no grip on reality whatsoever. They have no
intentions of solving anything. This leaves us with one commissioner.

Sincerely,

John Feazel

No cause for alarm

Dear Editor,

As I read your editorial today I was very disturbed with a
statement you made.

Change is no cause for alarm.

Do you really believe that? Last year when the district laid off
two employees a person having a seizure in downtown Pagosa waited 30
minutes for an ambulance.

Currently there are two paramedics on duty most days. When one
must accompany a patient to Durango, the other is here to cover the
next call. We do run multiple calls on occasion and yes people who
call 911 will not get a QRV or ambulance in timely manner. It happens
now.

I agree with the fact that EMS has grown too fast and we cannot
support the current service level. I don't believe it is scare
tactics if you be truthful and tell the citizens of Archuleta County
that the current level of service they have enjoyed the past few
years will be cut. Please let them know that if they do have a
medical emergency we will "try" to be there.

Sincerely,

Mike Ferrell

Paramedic

Proud resident

Dear Editor,

Wednesday morning we drove into town about 8:20 a.m. At that time
nearly all the street parking was taken and hundreds of chairs where
lined up in anticipation of our county's 4th of July Parade.

The American Legion led the parade with their color guard, one
member for each of the services - Army, Army Air Corps., Air Force,
Navy and Marines. The American Legion appreciates all the people who
stood at attention, saluted or placed their hand over their heart as
the American flag passed by.

Many of the spectator's voices called out "Thank You Veterans" and
"God Bless America." It makes us feel good that we served our
country.

After the parade it was on to a potluck and ice cream social
sponsored by a local organization, and fun visiting with old and new
friends. At 2 p.m. the Red Ryder Rodeo started to a full house of
spectators. It was nice sitting in the stands with a 270 degree
panorama view of our beautiful mountains to the north, east and the
south. Early in the evening we heard our own Pagosa Hot Strings
entertain us at the Sports Complex. The Hot Strings get better and
better all the time. At dusk we were treated to some beautiful
fireworks that lasted quite a long time. I would like to personally
thank the hundreds of people in our area who made this past Wednesday
a perfect 4th of July.

Proud to be an American and proud to be a permanent resident of
beautiful Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County.

Ron Gustafson

Get on with it

Dear Editor,

Just when are the "three con-artists" going to get their operation
together? If the commissioners are intent on hiring a county
administrator/manager or whatever other irrelevant title they wish to
bicker over - that's fine. Just get on with it. If you have no plan,
then you plan to fail.

But should you maneuver to make a commitment to fund the position,
then fund same from your combined 135K salaries. Do not take any more
money from the taxpayer to ease the elected responsibilities and
provide for your folly; 135K a year to attend meetings and pass
paperwork through each other from a county administrator and
department heads, so you can agree that they do the job, is a
monumental immoral scam of the community taxes.

Small work effort equates to small pay when I have to open my
wallet. But I will agree to rightly compensate and recognize the
dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.

Jim Sawicki

Parade video

Dear Editor,

The San Juan Outdoor Club is hoping that someone in the community
videotaped last year's Fourth of July Parade. We need a copy for our
archives.

If you can help us, please call David Overley at 731-4991 or Lynda
Van Patter at 731-4795. Thank you.

Lynda Van Patter

Medical support

Dear Editor,

This letter is inspired by two recent events. The first was the
headlines in the SUN about the current financial condition of the
Upper San Juan Hospital District and the Dr. Mary Fisher Medical
Center. The second came about when a lady rolled into the medical
center in her wheelchair. She was a paraplegic from a spinal disorder
that had a host of related medical needs. She was aghast when told
that she would have to go to Durango or beyond for her care. She had
been told during her property buying process that her needs could be
met in Pagosa Springs. This relates to a common question asked by
newcomers, perspective newcomers, and some locals, when will Pagosa
get a hospital?

The opinion expressed in this letter is mine alone, but comes from
the perspective of a professional medical background, having set on
the medical center development committee from inception to opening
party, and as an interested citizen.

On that committee we talked with many people in the rural medical
business. One of these, having heard our plans to develop a medical
center and perhaps a small hospital said, "May the force be with you,
you will need it." Information in a Denver Post article showed
30-plus clinics and small hospitals closing or in danger of closing
in Colorado towns at that time. Many of the towns are now without
local medical care.

In this age of HMOs, higher medical supply and technology costs,
insurance and governmental bureaucracy that require a staff to deal
with paperwork, and medical insurance costs pushed higher by lawsuits
it is a near miracle that any small medical facility is open.

The trend is for larger cities to have a hospital that serves as
the hub for a network of smaller communities with clinics for less
complicated and emergency medical needs. This is the situation we
designed for Archuleta County. It is unrealistic to promote the idea
that people can receive specialized care or that a hospital is even
in the distant future of Pagosa Springs. We need to promote the
doctors, staff, and facility at the medical center and our Emergency
Medical Service. Close ties with Durango and Farmington hospitals and
ground and air transport is our medical "ace in the hole."

With the hard work of our local medical staff and volunteer work,
including the work of the USJHD board, we have the high standard of
rural medical care that we experience. In particular the medical
center has operated efficiently with comparatively little outside
support while growing and increasing service.

If we want to improve or even maintain our current standard we
need to immediately increase support by increased taxes. If we can
pay for libraries, roads, parks, plowing, etc. surely we can pay for
medical care. Ask yourself, if you or your family needs medical
attention do you want to be serviced by facilities trimmed to a bare
minimum? Lets all get behind and support our medical community.

Norm Vance

Obituaries

Warren Johann

Warren E. "Meaux" Johann departed this life on July 7 at San Juan
Regional Medical Center in Farmington, N.M. He would have been 64
years old on July 10.

Born in Wichita, Kan., July 10, 1937, his career allowed him to
live in many areas of the United States. After completing a job in
Dillon, Meaux knew he would retire to the beautiful state of
Colorado. He and his wife moved to Pagosa Springs in July 1993.

Contributions to this fund will be used to assist middle school
and high school programs in Pagosa Springs by supplying financial
assistance for fly fishing classes and/or equipment for the students.

The family invites you to join in a celebration of the life of
this special man to be held at Community United Methodist Church on
Saturday, July 14, 2001 at 9:30 a.m.

People

Birth Announcement

Allen and Kim Thompson are proud to announce the birth of their
daughter, Morgan Jade Thompson, who was born June 28, 2001, at Mercy
Medical Center in Durango. Morgan weighed 8 pounds 5.6 ounces and was
18.5 inches. She was welcomed home by her brother Hunter Thompson.
Grandparents are Donna Boyer of Gunnison; Charles Boyer of Rye,
Texas; and Jim and Irene Thompson, of La Junta.

Sports Page

Fore! No, make that
three tournament holes-in-one

By Tess Noel Baker

It was a hole-in-one - times three - for a
trio of competitors at the Pagosa Springs Golf Course Tuesday.

Barbara Boggess, of Pagosa Springs, Lisa
Pierce, of Cortez, and Sue Branson, of Farmington, all made elusive
single shot holes during the Pine Cone Classic ladies golf
tournament.

"This has never happened," Sally Bish, of
Cruise Planners, said. Cruise Planners sponsored prizes for
hole-in-one shots, never expecting to have the opportunity to give
away a pair of seven-day cruises and two plane tickets to
Germany.

Boggess and Pierce both fired off
hole-in-ones at Ponderosa No. 8 to win cruises, while Branson scored
hers on Meadows No. 4 to take home plane tickets. The Pagosa Springs
resident was the only one to claim a second career single-shot
hole.

"But it's the only one that had a prize
attached," she said in an interview Wednesday morning. For the other
two, the day's shots were a first.

All three women said their spectacular
drives felt good coming off the tee, but the results were far better
than expected.

"I didn't know until I got up there to the
pin," Boggess said. "I thought it was close, but I never thought it
was in." In true golfing etiquette, she paused before celebrating her
shot.

"I waited for my teammates to play out and
then I jumped up and down," she said with a big smile.

"I saw it (the ball) land short of the hole,
and bent over to pick up my tee, and all three other girls saw it go
in the hole," Branson said.

What to do with the golf ball following the
shots was a toss-up.

"I think it found the water after it found
the hole," Boggess said.

Pierce, however, is keeping hers.

Community
News

Chamber News

By Sally Hameister

Seeking a name for Visitor
Center bear

Once again Pagosa Springs was the place to be on July 4 with
activities aplenty and something for everyone in the family. We have
many folks to thank, as always, for we get by only with the help of
our friends, and the Fourth is no exception.

Doug Trowbridge successfully survived organizing and implementing
his first five-day Park to Park Arts and Crafts Festival and has a
firm grip on what to expect the next time around. He did a great job
and "bonded" with our 90-plus vendors during the process. Truly, if
you can make it through an event that long and complicated, you can
do just about anything. Thanks for a terrific job, Doug.

We are also indebted to Doug Call, Jim and Lisa with Parks and
Recreation for all the extra hours they contributed to this long
weekend. I don't know that many people are aware of the "behind the
scenes" labor that goes into events and activities that take place in
the parks and sports complex, but know that these folks are in
perpetual motion for the duration of the event. They have to keep
things spic-and-span throughout, and that is no easy feat.

Special thanks to our friend and diplomat, Phyllis Alspach, for
her help once again this year. Phyllis was originally recruited by
Suellen to help mark the booth spaces in both parks prior to the
vendors' arrival, and Doug asked her to give him a hand this year
with the same task. Thanks so much, Phyllis.

A special note of gratitude to our new friends, Tom and Jan
Carnley, who were ever so helpful and responsive when we needed them
with a "water disaster" that required immediate attention, and Tom
was there for us. We are also ever-so grateful to Joel Justice with
Justice Water Works for working with Tom to handle the water
situation.

Terry Smith of Ace Lumber and Hardware was again our Knight in
Shining Armor (even though he is no longer a board director) by
providing us with a truck for our float. It was his newest fleet
addition and driven by seasoned driver, Jack Willshire. Jack has
driven our Chamber float now for many parades and truly seems to
enjoy all the madness and nonsense that comes with that job.

The Pagosa Hot Strings were magnificent with their "Window of
Opportunity" concert and played for over two hours to a most
appreciative crowd. I have already asked for them to come back next
year and am hopeful that they will acquiesce. Thanks, too, to Charles
Martinez and his magic flute for providing a beautiful mini-concert
in Centennial Park on very short notice.

The Colorado Mounted Rangers-Troop F provided our night security
once again for the booths in both parks, and we sure do appreciate
the peace of mind provided along with the security. Thanks to Spud
with Rocky Mountain Sanitation, the good folks at Pizza Hut and to
Charlie and Emily Rogers with Aquila and Pricilla Tentmakers.

Last but not least, we owe a special debt of gratitude to
"Casper," our own Robert Soniat, who looked very much like the Tin
Man in Wizard of Oz when he completed painting our facade for the
parade. Speaking of the silver facade, Mark Mesker of Paint
Connection Plus, the one and only "Mr. Smokin' Deal," donated the
silver paint and the paint thinner for our float. What a guy. Thanks,
Mark - we owe you, bud.

I also want to congratulate my wacky board of directors on winning
a prize for the very first time ever in a parade. We actually took
third place in the non-profit division of the fabulous Rotary Parade.
I think it might have been the guys dressed in skirts that did the
trick.

Name contest

We have acquired the most amazing "greeting bear" in the Visitor
Center, and we would like to invite you to visit us, check out the
bear and then name him (her?).

Our Monday afternoon Diplomat ladies simply fell in love when he
was delivered and decided that he did indeed need a name. We thank
the folks at Happy Camper RV Park for this wonderful addition to our
lobby which is not only ornamental but entirely functional. The bear
(carved, of course) is about five feet tall and holds a pad in his
paws with our guest register upon it. Visitors won't be able to
resist signing in with this irresistible guy inviting them to do so.
Similar and smaller or larger versions of this bear are available to
you at the Happy Camper.

We invite you to name our bear and win one of our beautiful new
Chamber of Commerce polo shirts and a Chamber hat as well. The
deadline for the Name the Bear Contest is July 28, and we hope you
will all enter. Just come on down and fill out a contest form.

Library meeting

One of my very favorite events of the year is tomorrow night, and
I encourage all of you to be there with bells on. It's the Friends of
the Library Annual Meeting at the Extension Building, beginning at 6
p.m.

To take advantage of all the amazing bargains, you do need to be a
Friend of the Library, and you can accomplish that right at the door.
A family membership is $10, an individual membership is $5, a student
is $2, and a lifetime membership is $100. There will be a brief
meeting and refreshments will be served before the book sale of book
sales.

Believe me, folks, you won't believe the book bargains you will
find. Every year I buy a box or two of wonderful books to sustain me
throughout the winter, as do lots of Pagosans. Don't forget to RSVP
for this event at 264-2209. Hope to see you all there on Friday
night.

Auditions

The Pagosa Springs Music Boosters will hold auditions for their
upcoming production of "Fiddler on the Roof" tomorrow from 5-8 p.m.
and Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Pagosa Springs High
School Music Room. All interested future stars should bring sheet
music for an accompanist or provide their own accompaniment if
auditioning for a singing role.

This popular and familiar musical offers 12 lead roles and a
chorus of 30 as well as opportunities to play in the orchestra or be
a part of one of the crews. If you have questions, call Joan Hageman
at 264-4863

Vaudeville

Don't forget to contact John Graves (731-9863) or John Porter
(731-3671) to let them know you would like to participate in the
upcoming Music Boosters' Vaudeville Show at the Archuleta County
Fair. Bring your song and dance routine or comedy act to these
gentlemen to be a part of this Aug. 4 recreation of vaudeville at the
Fairgrounds. We have so much amazing talent in this community, and
this is our chance to share it and have a grand time doing so.

Membership

We have two new members to share with you this week and four
renewals. We are grateful that these people somehow found time to
join us during the hectic July 4 week. Thanks to all.

We welcome Farrell and Barbara Trask who bring us The Lighting
Center located at 301 North Pagosa Boulevard, Suite 3. The Lighting
Center offers builders and homeowners on-site and in-house design
consultation for all lighting needs including indoor, outdoor,
decorative, fluorescent, track and recessed fixtures; fans; lamps and
shades. Please call 731-5633 for more information about The Lighting
Center. We thank Kathryn Heilhecker once again for her recruitment of
the Trasks and will send off her free SunDowner pass with our sincere
gratitude.

Our next new member is Jeffrey H. Hunts who brings us TUFCO, INC.
located at MSC No. 4413, 63 North Pagosa Boulevard, Suite B3. TUFCO
offers all phases of excavation and trucking to include total site
preparation and roads and pads cut. Stump removal is also available
as well as full trucking services. No job is too small for Jeffrey,
and he invites you to give him a call at 731-1146 for more
information.

Our renewals this week include Russ Wilstead, General Manager, Red
Lion Inn and Suites; Jim Downing with Hydro-Force, LLC, Pressure
Washing; Cy Scarborough with Bar D Chuckwagon in Durango; and
Associate Members Lee and Patti Sterling. I just met Lee and Patti's
daughter, Sally, and we spent a lot of time admiring each other's
names.

Sad tidings

Our hearts go out to my little sis, Betty Johann, and her family
with the recent loss of her husband, Meaux. We have all lost a funny,
gentle, private friend, and he will always be with us in memory. I
know that my little pal is appreciative of the love and support that
has been forthcoming from this wonderful community and is grateful to
each and every one for the outpouring of love. Please check the SUN
for further information about Meaux's memorial service Saturday
morning.

Senior News

By Janet Copeland

Perfect weather, picnic,
fireworks, a great treat for all

Do we live in the best town around or what? The July 4th
celebrations were absolutely wonderful and we thank those folks who
put in so much time and effort to produce such a great parade and
fireworks demonstration. Our seniors (about 40 of us) enjoyed the
perfect weather and the picnic the evening of July 4. Many thanks to
Susan Stouffer and the folks at Casa de los Arcos for allowing us to
use their front lawn and tables/chairs, and to the folks who brought
potluck dishes, which made for a delicious meal.

We also owe a big thanks to the Rotary Club, who went to all the
trouble of setting up chairs in the shady area for our seniors to
observe the parade. Unfortunately the folks here at the Senior Center
who needed to know about it didn't get the word so our folks didn't
get to take advantage of their efforts. We really appreciate it,
anyway.

Bruce and Mary Muirhead and Pat and Hannah Foster do so many nice
things for our group. We thank them for the video tapes they donated
to our library. Hannah and Pat Foster also donated a cassette player
for our seniors to use. If anyone else would care to donate videos,
we are trying to build our library for our seniors' use.

Charley Martinez was our Senior of the Week last week. We so enjoy
having Charley join us at the center and congratulate him for being
selected. Sy Kohlman is our Senior of the Week this week. We are glad
to have Sy and Donna back with us and happy to honor Sy.

Friday we had a huge crowd. It was wonderful to have our dining
room filled up. Mary Archuleta's daughter, Sadie Hunter, and sister,
Rose Archuleta joined us. We are happy to meet them. Also, we were
happy to have Gary and Ruth Driesens back with us for the summer, and
to have Linda Muirhead, Ellie Wilkins and John Montoya visit with us.
We hope all you folks will join us again soon.

Donna Pina at Social Services still needs help with cutting,
splitting, loading and delivering fire wood which was donated by the
folks at Elk Park to help those folks who need it. If you would like
to donate some time and effort, or earn some money helping out,
please contact Donna at 264-2182.

We just like to remind everyone of the advantages of membership in
our group, and remind our returning and new folks to purchase their
membership cards for $3 each. Numerous businesses offer discounts on
purchases and use of their services or on admission when members
present their cards.

Pagosa Lakes

By Ming Steen

Vista Wildlife Trail great for
whole family outings

With such beautiful weather, it is sure
lovely to be outside.

Mornings and evenings make for good walking.
A friend once said "a family that exercises together stays together."
What do you think? I believe there are many benefits to spending time
doing activities that the whole family (including the dog), can enjoy
together.

Not far from our own backyard are hiking and
biking trails. One that I particularly like is the Vista Lake
Wildlife Trail. This wildlife viewing trail was constructed around
Vista Lake last fall. The trail was part of a GOCO (Great Outdoors
Colorado) funded youth corps project.

PLPOA's Larry Lynch is working with the
Division of Wildlife to construct three wildlife interpretive signs
including a waterfowl I.D. sign, a wetland educational sign, and a
map orientation sign. Please take the time to come check it out. The
trail goes all the way around the lake and then down into Martinez
Canyon through Trails Boulevard. Vista Lake is a unique area, loaded
with watchable wildlife.

It's important for the trail to be used,
otherwise the weeds will take over. Access is off of Vista Boulevard
to Port Avenue. You'll see the access road/parking area and picnic
pavilion next to the lake. The trail is open to any non-motorized
use. Call Larry Lynch at the PLPOA office for more information,
731-5635.

Members of the Trails Council have planned a
trails construction day for Saturday. Can you help? Meet at 9 a.m. at
the first cattle guard on Piedra Road, right next to the dirt parking
area.

Anyone can help; no Amazonian strength
needed. If you have gardening level qualities, you can be a big
helper. Focus will be on trailheads and trail markers in the area.

Volunteers will be fed a yummy lunch and
given a free T-shirt. My thanks to you if you volunteer. Trail
builders are special people. They create opportunities for all to
access the beautiful forests. They help give us a chance to stand in
groves of trees, amidst meadows of wildflowers. They help us feel and
smell nature. Looking at nature through the windows of a vehicle is a
poor second. I thank you again and again.

Lake Pagosa has been stocked with rainbow
and cut bow trout. Last week, over 2,000 pounds of trout were stocked
into the lake. Anglers have enjoyed excellent fishing over the
weekend and that trend should continue throughout the summer. Larry
Lynch, with the help of his able crew, will be stocking more trout in
September in Hatcher Lake, Lake Pagosa and Lake Forest. This coming
weekend should still be good fishing. Bring the family out for a day
on the lake. Fishing permits are available at the Recreation
Center.

PLPOA directors will hold their monthly
meeting at 7 p.m. tonight in the Pagosa Lakes Clubhouse, 230 Port
Avenue. Members and observers are encouraged to attend. Public
comments will be heard at the beginning of the meeting.

Library News

By Lenore Bright

Friends annual meeting, sale
Friday

Tomorrow and Saturday are the big days for
the annual booksale. Tomorrow evening we host the Friends Annual
Meeting and private booksale. You're all invited to join the Friends
and get first chance at the wide variety of books we'll have for
sale.

Activities start at 6 p.m. at the Extension
Building. Annual dues can be paid at the door. Refreshments are
available, and after a very short meeting, the sale begins. Annual
dues are $10 for a family, $5 for an individual, and $2 for a student
under 18. Please RSVP at 264-2209 so we know how much food to
have.

Saturday is the big public book sale. So
much is going on in town, we trust you will get to the book sale
early, then go and enjoy all of the other events. Doors will open at
7 a.m. We will only be open until 2 p.m., so be early and get the
bargains.

We appreciate donations of books that are in
good shape and saleable. We can't use old textbooks, novels without
their book jackets, or materials that are old and moldy. We know it
is hard to part with your books, but if you need more room now is the
time to give them up for a good cause.

The Friends of the Library support various
projects including the Summer Reading Program. This year is a banner
one as we have 291 children signed up now, with only two more weeks
to go. Friends help buy books and prizes for this important program.
Your support of the booksale helps with this.

Another milestone

We continue to be avant-garde when it comes
to new ways to better serve our patrons.

Cathy Dodt-Ellis from our library was chosen
as a beta tester for another statewide Interlibrary Loan test called
SWIFT. Pilot libraries around the state are training to be part of
this web-based browser.

What does this mean? Lending libraries may
look at online requests and send the interlibrary loans directly.
Eventually you may be able to order Interlibrary books right from
home. SWIFT was supported with federal funds. Cathy reports we have
already sent 75 requests and SWIFT is working well.

Genealogy workshop

For those of you interested in beginning and
intermediate genealogy, there will be a workshop July 14 from 8:30
a.m.-2 p.m. at the Methodist Church. The cost is $20. You are asked
to park in back of the church. Kerri Montagriff, Shirley Snider and
members of the Genealogy Society will put on various classes.

For more information, call Shirley at
264-6402.

Reading program

Our dragon mascot has a new name: "Miss
Lotta-Scales Readabilia."

This fun name came from Eli Stephens and
Julia Nell. Congratulations for their imaginative suggestions.

There were other winners for the week of
July 3. Julia LeLievre picked the closest number of jellybeans.
Readers of the Week were Johannah Laverty, Waylon Lucero, Matthew
McFarland, Rose Quintana, Ashley Iverson, Sara Sanna, Jessie Bir,
Clint Walkup, Tate Hinger and Conner Aragon.

When the local genealogical society holds
its annual workshop July 14 at the Methodist Church, there's a chance
to learn how to put together a family history.

If you are already familiar with this hobby,
there's a chance you might learn something else. It will be held at
the Community United Methodist Church 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and cover
three parts: Beginning Genealogy, Intermediate Computer, and
Genealogy and Origins of our American Ancestors. Cost is $20.

There are organizations devoted to
descendants from certain times in history. Pagosa Springs doesn't
have any chapters but there are residents who belong to some of them
- such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the
American Revolution, the National Society Colonial Dames XVII
Century, the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, the National Society
Magna Carta Dames, The Mayflower Society, United Sons of the
Confederacy, Washington Family Descendants, and the Orphan Brigade
Kinfolk. This does not include family associations of which there are
many.

These organizations - and there are many
more than those I listed - are a wonderful way to find distant
cousins. And, too, they are a way to learn where you got certain
physical characteristics.

For example, Saturday, a cousin called me
from Virginia. She'd gone to a family association reunion in Richmond
(her first time) and was delighted to know where she'd got her nose.
She'd inherited it through the DuVal line. Now I didn't get there
this time, but when I was there two years ago, I kept counting the
high cheek bones. (Both of us have the nose and the bones.)

Snow-white hair runs in my mother's family.
It used to be that whenever a funeral parlor was full of people with
beautiful, thick white hair, people knew that a Cunningham had died.
My mother was a Cunningham from Caldwell County, Kentucky. Next door
was Trigg County where William and Nancy (Carr) Cunningham settled in
the early 1800s. He left many descendants. My grandfather left Trigg
for Caldwell because cousins were marrying cousins.

One of the characteristics of "cousins
marrying cousins" was that some of them had double little toes - and
this may sound funny, but the ones I knew with this deformity were
very smart.

All of William and Nancy's children had
family names, and their children had the same family names, so
nicknames became the way to keep an identity.

There were 10 children and 89 grandchildren.
The first family lived near the river and were called "Duck"
Cunninghams - Bill Duck, etc. The third family was called "Buck"
Cunninghams - Buck Cunningham, etc. The sixth family was known as
"Dab" Cunninghams - the Dab for Dabney. The seventh family had one
son, Robert, nicknamed "Tank." He was so named because he would not
sit still for a hair cut and reminded his father of the trash
disposals (called tanks) in Scotland.

The tenth family boys liked to fish and swim
and had the nicknamed "Rat" Cunningham. The story is told that a man
rode up to one of the Cunningham houses and asked for the father. A
son answered with, "He has gone across the river to Wash
Rats."

After getting the same answer the third
time, the stranger rode away to inquire of the first person he saw,
"Why would any man wash rats?"

The "Wash" was for Washington
Cunningham.

It's stories like this that make family
history fun and give one a feeling of belonging. Even if you never
attend a genealogical workshop, there are things you can do - for
there's a chance that someone just might care one of these days - and
that is to write the name on the back of pictures, date them, and
save family documents. Store them all together and you might even
draw up a rough family tree.

Now, you may already be a good genealogist
and that's a good thing. In the meantime, think of attending the
workshop. There is so much new to learn with all the technology, even
if you have been doing genealogy for ages.

Around Town

It seems Pagosans gave the United Blood
Services a good showing this week. On Monday, a total of 24 people
signed up to give blood, and 23 people came - a very good turnout for
a town this size it seems. Of course, blood remains in short supply,
so consider donating if you can, the next time a donation center
comes to town.

Fun on the Run

"What's your father's occupation?" asked the
school secretary on the first day of the new academic year.

"He's a magician ma'am," said Little
Johnny.

"How interesting. What's his favorite
trick?"

"He saws people in half."

"Gosh! Now next question. Any brothers or
sisters?"

"One half brother and two half
sisters."

Cruising with
Cruse

by Katherine Cruse

There's nothing like a friendly
audience

July 4th was a hot time on Main Street. Boy,
was it hot.

Last year I marched in the parade, part of
the San Juan Outdoor Club's award-winning entry, a precision drill
team. One of the team members carried a super soaker and engaged in
regular water fights along the route. Collateral water kept all of us
cool.

This year I sat sedately by the sidewalk and
watched. And roasted. I would have welcomed some good water fights
coming my way, but they were few and far between.

Hotshot and I applied sunscreen before we
left home. We put on more at the beginning of the parade, when the
Rotary Club runners and walkers came along.

We put on more during the parade, increasing
coverage on our knees, our feet (don't wear sandals unless you want
hot pink toes) and on our arms.

Friends in the nearby seats said, "We think
this is the best parade in the country."

"Why?" I asked. "Because it's long," laughed
Cate.

"Because half the people in Pagosa are in
the parade and the other half are watching," said John.

"Right," agreed Cate. "Nobody's at home. If
you were a burglar, you could clean up this morning."

The first few entries went by - including
the Senior Center and Pine Ridge Nursing Home, followed by the San
Juan Basin Health Center ambulance. Was this intentional?

Then there was a long gap, I mean long,
before the band appeared. No wonder the parade takes a couple of
hours. But people didn't care. We were with friends, the day was
beautiful, and nobody had any place else to be.

There's nothing like a friendly audience.
People around us called out to people in the parade - their
neighbors, their children, their neighbors' children.

We all clapped for the fair and rodeo
royalty and all the other royalty. Pretty girls in shiny crowns
perched on trailers and on car roofs. We clapped for flatbed trailers
full of small children. We clapped for the veterans.

When Smokey Bear came by, people rushed out
to hug him. Little kids, teenage girls, grown men. I haven't seen a
person in an animal suit getting so many hugs since Hotshot and I
accompanied our granddaughter to Walt Disney World last year and
Winnie the Pooh was passing by.

I'm told the bear suit was air-conditioned,
so there was no danger of Smokey getting heat stroke. Two forest
service trucks followed Smokey. But wait!

The second truck was being pushed by half a
dozen men. They weren't all wearing regulation shirt and pants; some
were volunteers from the audience, helping out a ranger with a dead
vehicle.

Was this breakdown a result of federal
budget cutting?

The first truck stopped, the second got
pushed up to it, barely, and a set of chains appeared. If you were
sitting near the front of the parade, you can rest easy. By the time
they reached Jackisch Drugs the first truck was pulling the second,
and the volunteers could head back to their own families.

And of course, we clapped for all of
them.

We clapped for the drill teams, the Outdoor
Club Kazoo Band, the Canyon REO paddle majorettes. We cheered when
those super soakers sprayed the crowd. We put on more
sunscreen.

We admired the horses with their red, white
and blue legs. We got ready to run when a handsome black horse got
upset, bucking and rearing and threatening to back his buggy into the
crowd.

We oohed and aahed over the flips by the
agile gymnasts from Pagosa Springs.

We clapped for the heavy-duty tow truck
pulling five - count 'em, five - vehicles strung out behind like
turtles sunning on a log.

We laughed when the drivers of two enormous
construction vehicles jumped out and staged their own water fight
with the cement mixer's hoses. We wished they'd send a shot our way,
but no such luck.

Hotshot and I have lived in a lot of
different towns and attended a lot of parades. One of my favorites
was in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, a suburb of Hartford. South
Glastonbury held two parades each year, one in the spring, probably
on Memorial Day, and one on Muster Day, a fall celebration harking
back to colonial times.

A favorite entry in those parades was the
guy on the box. Picture a wooden box about a foot wide and a foot
high and maybe 18 inches long, with dinky little wheels and a hidden
motor. The rider perched on the box, hunched over, his feet up on
little metal braces, and worked the tiny controls. He never cracked a
smile, but he drew a lot of laughs.

We also lived for a while in San Antonio
Texas, which has some magnificent parades. Three of them take place
in April, during the 10 days of Fiesta, which commemorates the battle
of San Jacinto and Texas independence. These are major parades, with
college bands and high school marching units, large mounted police
troops, elaborate costumes. One parade is held at night, so a lot of
the floats and entries carry little lights.

The biggie, though, is the Battle of Flowers
Parade. This is the parade that features the Fiesta royalty. The
Fiesta queens and princesses and duchesses stand on raised floats
with elaborate beaded trains displayed in front of them. The trains
qualify as works of art. They're about 20 feet long. Making them for
the queens and princesses is a project that keeps some seamstresses
in San Antonio employed year-round.

The result is stunning. The crowds are
impressed. But I can't say they're having any more fun than we do at
Pagosa's Fourth of July Parade.

Now if someone will just ride a little
self-propelled box.

Navajo State
Park

by Sue Taylor

Doug Secrist gets park manager
post near Eagle

I am sure many of you who read this column
know Doug Secrist and his wife, Cyndy.

What many of you may not know is that July 8
Doug left his post as senior ranger at Navajo and moved to Sylvan
Lake State Park, located outside of Eagle, as it's new park manager.

This promotion has been long awaited by
Doug. As senior ranger for the past nine years, he has proved himself
worthy of manager status time and again. Whenever problems arose - be
it for a visitor, volunteer, or staff member - Doug saw to it
personally. A tireless worker, Doug saw to the safety of all who came
to the park.

Of course, Doug is not the only one who
touched so many lives. As principal of Pagosa Springs Elementary,
Cyndy also made her mark. Not only did students and teachers thrive
under her leadership, but the school's Fourth grade made the state's
highest marks in reading. Cyndy helped to create an environment where
teachers felt comfortable in challenging their students to do more
than they thought they could.

Through her position at the school, Cyndy
played an important part in supporting the educational goals of both
Navajo State Park and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. As one of
the DOW's officers told me the other day, "We are going to miss her
that far and I am sure they will be back to visit us here. If not,
they have campgrounds at Sylvan. Goodbye Doug and Cyndy, and good
luck.

Longest Fourth

With the holiday falling on a Wednesday this
year, the usual three-day weekend stretched out to last six days.

Many of our visitors stayed much longer,
enjoying the new campground's full hookups. Fireworks, special events
in Pagosa Springs, Durango and Farmington, fishing and water sports
kept people busy. Thunderstorms arriving every afternoon did not
dampen spirits for long, but provided a cool respite from the
heat.

Wildlife Watch

On Saturday, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m., people have
the opportunity to master new wildlife watching skills through this
activity-filled introductory workshop.

Learn how to become aware of sights and
sounds in nature, discover where, when and how to see wildlife
responsibly, and gain practical experience with wildlife habitats and
signs on a short hike.

Want to become better at using binoculars
and spotting scopes? This course can show you things you've always
wanted to know but were afraid to ask. The course is free with park
admission. If you wish to buy copies of the books and materials used
during the class, they will be available for $15 per set. Please
bring a sack lunch, water and appropriate clothing for walking
outside.

Reservations are required so please call Sue
at 883-5455. See you in the wild.

Travels in Colorado

This week's bookstore special spotlights
travel in Colorado past and present.

"Amazing Traveler Isabella Bird" by Evelyn
Kaye is a fascinating biography about a woman who didn't allow
Victorian stereotypes to stop her from venturing along into the wild
west and climbing mountains. Isabella Bird's adventures offer modern
day women a mirror to examine their own freedoms. A must read for
every student of Colorado history.

After visiting the Colorado of a hundred
years ago, you may wish to see how the scenery has changed. For this,
"Colorado's Scenic and Historic Byways" by Joe Vessengin can be your
guide to many of the places Isabella Bird visited plus some. Buy both
of these books and get 10 percent off the purchase price.

Veterans
Corner

by Andy Fautheree

Women veterans entitled to same
benefits

Recently I've seen an increase in women
veterans contacting the Archuleta County Veterans Service Office.
Some of the women veterans are new discharges and the most recent
contact served in the Vietnam era. This office is pleased and honored
to help the women obtain Veterans benefits.

Today, women constitute almost 15 percent of
active-duty forces. There are more than 1.4 million women who have
served, comprising some 5 percent of all veterans. And as the number
of women veterans has grown, so has the VA health care system in
meeting their needs.

Many women who have served in the military
do not know they are eligible for VA benefits. Some believe only
those who served in a war zone or specific campaigns are considered
veterans. Women veterans are entitled to the same benefits granted
male veterans.

Homelessness is a common concern among
veterans' groups, but until now little attention has been paid to
homeless women vets. These women can be at risk for homelessness
because they lack support when transitioning to civilian life,
frequently serve as primary care provider to children, and often need
to seek shelter from abusive relationships.

The VA has dedicated $3 million to support
programs, staffing and transitional housing for homeless women
veterans. By the end of the year, 11 sites around the country should
be functional. These facilities will work with community programs,
which can provide services VA cannot offer.

VA is beginning to improve its
gender-specific treatment options. Women's VA benefits now entail
complete physical exams, including breast and pelvic exams,
gynecology services and referrals for necessary services unavailable
at the facility.

A recent VA Advisory Committee report
includes the following recommendations: educating women about
benefits; ensuring privacy and safety in VA hospitals; making sexual
trauma counseling a permanent program; and paying more attention to
the specific health care needs of women.

Additional information about Women Veterans
can be found on the Internet at: www.va.gov/womenvet.

Speaking of the Internet, a wealth of
information about veteran services and benefits can be found at the
main VA Website: www.va.gov.

I urge all veterans who have access to the
Internet to check out the Website. For anyone without personal
Internet access, you can access the Internet at our local public
library.

I didn't get a chance to thank the Liberty
Theater folks last week for honoring veterans while they were showing
"Pearl Harbor." I believe on the opening night performance they gave
free admission to all veterans. They continued to honor veterans on
their marquee during the "Pearl Harbor" showings.

We are fortunate in this community to have
strong veteran support from all of our media. I host The Bill Miller
Show on KWUF Tuesday evenings from 6-9 p.m., saluting veterans and
playing the '40s, '50s and '60s music. The SUN, of course, has been a
very strong supporter of veterans affairs, publishing this weekly
column and many editorials and feature editions about veterans over
the years.

I could not go without thanking the
Archuleta County Commissioners for their strong support of the
Veterans Service Office. The next time you see Bill Downey, Alden
Ecker or Gene Crabtree, shake their hands and thank them for their
support of Veterans Affairs.

For information on these topics and on other
veterans' benefits, call or stop by the Veterans Service Office
located on the lower floor of the Archuleta County Courthouse. The
office number is 264-2304, the FAX number is 264-5949, and E-mail is
vsoarch@pagosa.net. The office is open 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 4
p.m. Monday through Thursday, or Friday by appointment. Bring your DD
Form 214 (Discharge) for registration with the county, for
application for VA programs, and for filing in the VSO office.

Parks &
Rec

by Douglas Call

Baseball instructional league
will open play Friday

A baseball instructional league, to be held
on Friday mornings, will begin tomorrow and continue through Aug.
10.

The league, for players age 8-12, will take
place at the Sports Complex 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. each Friday. Questions
about the clinic can be answered at Town Hall, 264-4151, ext. 232.

T-shirts are included in the registration
fee of $25. Registration is limited to 40 participants.s

Youth baseball

The youth baseball season ended for all but
the Bambino League. The Bambino all-star team defeated Dulce 30-8 on
June 29. The Bambino tournament kicked off Tuesday with two games.
Games three and four are scheduled tonight on Field 1 at the Sports
Complex, starting at 6 p.m.

Tournament brackets are available at Town
Hall and are posted at the sports complex. The league all-star team
will travel to Monte Vista for a tournament July 19-21.

Adult softball

Softball games resumed this week with
contests Monday through Thursday evenings. The men's league finished
its first round of play last night and will begin games in recreation
and competitive divisions July 16.

The competitive league is comprised of At
Your Disposal, Clifford Construction, Ken's Performance, P.P.P.
Playboys and U Can Afford Landscaping.

The recreation league includes American
Legion, The Bears, Dulce Black Sox, Dulce Tigers and Stray
Dogs.

Schedules for the second half of the season
are available at the games, at Town Hall, and are posted at the
Sports Complex. League games for both mens' divisions will conclude
July 25 and tournament games for both divisions will begin July
26.

Tournament brackets for the men's games will
be available July 19. Coed league games will run through Aug. 1 and
tournament play will start Aug. 2.

Park Fun

The program resumed Monday, limited to 21
participants. To have their child remain at Park Fun and keep a spot
in the program, parents need to pay the next week's registration the
Friday before the week begins. Participants will be taken on a
first-come, first-served basis. The program will end Aug. 10.

Fall soccer

Soccer registration is now underway with $10
early registration through Aug. 10. The organizational coaches'
meeting will be held Aug. 21 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. Practices will
begin the week of Aug. 27 and games will begin Sept. 11.

The season will conclude with tournament
play Oct. 19-20. Games will be played at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. Forms are available at Town Hall. Call the Recreation
Department at 264-4151, ext. 232 with any questions.

Arts Line

by Stephanie Jones

Arts Camp students' work in new
show

The Pagosa Springs Arts Council is proud to
have as the next exhibit at the gallery in Town Park the art work of
students from the Summer Arts Camp directed by Tessie Garcia and Lisa
Brown.

Of the 30 students attending the camp, 11
will display their pottery, basketry, sculptures, fiber art,
painting, drawings and jewelry. The opening reception will be held
today 5-7 p.m., and I encourage everyone to come into the gallery and
view the talented children's artwork. The gallery is open 10 a.m. - 5
p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, now until Labor Day.

Home and Garden Show

The first annual Pagosa Springs Arts Council
Home and Garden Show will be held Aug. 12 from noon to 5 p.m.

This is an exciting new event where local
gardeners open their homes and share the beauty of their gardens with
the public. Tickets cost $10, $8 for PSAC members, and can be
purchased at Wolftracks, Moonlight Books and the PSAC Gallery in Town
Park. More information can be obtained by calling the gallery at
264-5020.

Jazz weekend

The Pagosa Springs Music Boosters will
present an exciting weekend of jazz starting July 27 at the Timbers
with Moonyah Orchestra Latin Jazz playing from 8-10:30 p.m. and E.J.
the D.J. from 11 p.m. on.

The internationally-known Queen City Jazz
Band will perform at the high school auditorium July 28 from 7:30-9
p.m. The concert will be followed by a special "meet the musicians"
at the Timbers from 9:30-10 p.m. and a jam session with DC and the
All Stars at 10 p.m.

On Sunday Rio Jazz will perform at the
Timbers.

Tickets can be purchased individually for
each event or for $22 for the entire weekend at Moonlight Books, The
Plaid Pony, Timbers, Wolftracks, and the Chamber or Diamond
Daves.

"Fiddler on the Roof"

Auditions for the Music Boosters' production
of "Fiddler on the Roof" are tomorrow 6-9 p.m. and Saturday 9-5 p.m.
with call backs 2-6 p.m. Sunday at the high school band room. More
information is available from Joan Hageman at 264-6983 or Andy Donlan
at 264-9555.

Vaudeville Show

Anyone interested in participating in the
Music Boosters' Vaudeville Show Aug. 4 at the Archuleta County Fair
is encouraged to call John Porter at 731-3671 or John Graves at
731-9863. The show will incorporate song, dance, comedy and skits.

Pagosa Pretenders

The Pagosa Pretenders Family Theater is
presenting its first summer production Aug. 17, 18, 24 and 25 at the
Fred Harman Museum. The Pretenders, known for their creativity, will
perform a historical depiction of the life of the legendary local
Fred Harman and his success with his comic character Red Ryder. The
show will be performed outdoors in the early evening and will include
the usual audience interaction and Pretenders' surprises. The group
donates all of the proceeds from its production to community projects
so it is a great way to support local talent. For more information
call Susan Garman at 731-2485 or Addie Greer at 264-4596.

CD Sampler

Due to the success of the first CD sampler,
Volume 2 featuring local musicians is currently in development. Over
500 copies have been pre-sold with a release date tentatively planned
for late this summer. If any business or group is interested in
purchasing nine or more CDs their logo will be printed on the cover.
Any musician interested in being included in the CD, needs to know
selections will be made July 26. Call the gallery at 264-5020 for
more information.

Relay For Life

In today's times almost everyone either
knows someone with cancer or has had the misfortune of experiencing
the disease first-hand.

Please support Relay for Life to help find a
cure. The Pagosa Pretenders Family Theater is looking for members to
join their team July 27-28 at Town Park. If you are interested you
can call Susan Garman at 731-2485 or JoAnn at 264-5020. Support can
also be given by stopping by the gallery and making your pledge for
the walkers or by purchasing a luminary for the Light of Hope
Ceremony.

PSAC membership

Support the arts in Pagosa by becoming a
member of the PSAC. We are a nonprofit organization that relies on
membership, donations, volunteers and the success of our many
sponsored events to help provide meaningful and educational cultural
programs for locals and visitors to our area.

Benefits of PSAC membership include
discounts on several local events and services, invitations and
announcements to gallery openings and events, subscription to The
Petroglyph, a free membership gift, and the wonderful fulfillment of
supporting the arts.

In Sync

by Isabel Willis

Mission: Support women and
sanctity of life

Pregnant? Don't know what to do?

There are probably no two questions that
could have more impact on a woman's life than these. Fortunately,
there is a place where women can get accurate answers, in a
non-judgmental and supportive manner.

The place is the Pagosa Pregnancy Support
Center located 358 South 8th Street, and yes you can just walk in. In
fact most women who seek help walk in instead of calling. That gives
you an idea how well this center - established a little more than two
years ago - is doing if women feel comfortable enough to walk inside
an unfamiliar place and talk about their most personal matters.

Providing care, compassion, relevant
information and resources to women facing unplanned pregnancies is
what the Pagosa Pregnancy Support Center is truly all about. Their
mission is to promote the sanctity of human life.

Kathy Koy, registered nurse, is the director
of the center, and she is aided by four trained and highly dedicated
volunteers.

The center is open Monday, Wednesday and
Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Kathy says the center is so busy that they
have had to expand their staff to two more volunteers, and a
half-time paid staff person. Julie Burule will join them at the end
of July to provide even more direct client services. However, Kathy
says her most valuable resources are her volunteers because of their
commitment to the women they serve.

Kathy's second most valuable resource is the
donors. The Pagosa Pregnancy Support Center is totally supported by
private donations. Client services, not fundraising, is their focus;
but every two years the center hosts a golf tournament to raise
funds. The October golf tournament raised $40,000.

Although the Pagosa Pregnancy Support Center
is truly a community sponsored program, it is under the umbrella of a
national organization called Care Net which is network of pregnancy
centers across North America. The Pagosa Pregnancy Support Center is
a Christian-based organization, and thus their work is a ministry
that helps women meet their total needs, physically, emotionally and
spiritually.

Since providing accurate information to
women is paramount, Kathy makes very sure the information is
thoroughly researched and reviewed by her staff before it is shared.
Thus the three areas of ongoing services are resource information,
abstinence education and abortion recovery.

Many women are attracted to coming to the
center for the free pregnancy test, but the center at least attempts
to provide some educational resource materials and discuss with each
woman any issues or questions they might have.

Kathy stresses that supporting the woman,
regardless of the choice she makes, is their main objective. She says
that their focus is to help women set goals for the future, not to
dwell on the circumstances that led to the pregnancy, although much
support is offered in this area. Kathy, along with Kate Kelley, leads
a Bible study support group which is a structured 12-week program for
4-5 women at a time. The small group size is to allow for more safe
and intimate discussion. For some women it is the first time they are
able to tell their story and feel accepted. If there are issues such
as a history of child abuse, domestic violence, substance use or
mental illness the center encourages women to seek help from
counselors in the community. For other needs, referrals are made to
the Department of Social Services, San Juan Basin Health Department,
Healthy Kids Partnership and local physicians.

The question Kathy is most asked from the
community is, how big is the problem of unwanted pregnancies? Kathy
offered the following statistics: in Archuleta County 3-5 percent of
the teenage population became pregnant in 1999, an increase from
years past. Of those women who come to the center (the youngest being
14 years old and the oldest being 48 years old) about half are
Hispanic. For Hispanic women statewide, nearly half do not have
prenatal care in the first trimester. They are likely to have
pre-term births and have children with low birthweights. Also they
are likely to be less educated, and to be unmarried. Given these
factors, agencies like the Pagosa Pregnancy Support Center are needed
to help better prepare all women facing unwanted pregnancies. Kathy
reports that most women who come to the center choose to keep their
babies.

Aside from educational support, there are
practical needs, for example maternity and baby clothes, baby
furniture and other supplies. The center wants to institute a new
program called "Earn While You Learn" whereby a woman can earn points
by watching an educational video or attending a presentation and use
them toward any needed item.

Prevention of unwanted pregnancies begins
early, and the Pagosa Springs High School takes the lead in their
Teen Aid Program. Kathy facilitates discussions with the students on
abstinence education which includes information on the damaging
effects of sexually transmitted diseases. Again the center's focus is
not about the physical aspects, but the interpersonal relationships
youth have with one another and how they feel about themselves that
impacts their decisions to have sex. If some students in the class
have already been sexually active, Kathy stresses to them not to let
the past identify who they are. Teenage girls who have been sexually
active, especially suffer from hurtful remarks and labels and are in
need of reassurance that they are O.K. We can all help these
teenagers and women facing unwanted pregnancies by first conveying
our acceptance, and then letting them know about others who can help
them further. For more information about the free and confidential
services the Pagosa Pregnancy Support Center has to offer, or to make
a donation to the program, call 264-5963.

Attention: Information in last week's Insync
with Isabel column regarding the scenario for DUI costs should be
credited to Judge James E. Denvir.

Editorials

Thanks for a great
Fourth

Last week's Fourth of July holiday celebration in Pagosa Springs
was unusual in one way, typical in most others.

It was unusual because the Fourth of July hit midweek. Generally,
the celebration encompasses a weekend, with three or four days
available for full-throttle festivities.

There was speculation as to whether the Independence Day goings-on
would be changed by the Wednesday date.

Concern was unfounded: the Fourth was business as usual. There was
a crush of enthusiastic participants and spectators, a stellar lineup
of activities - all seemingly bigger and grander than the year
before. This has been the trend for quite a few years, and there is
no sign it will abate. The holiday reflects the community: bigger,
more complex. Fortunately, it does not mirror the community's
problems, only its assets.

The summer holiday connects present with the past. It is the
quintessential small-town celebration. People come from far and wide
to join oldtimers and newcomers alike at the parade, the arts and
crafts fair, the rodeos, the concert, the fireworks display. Ask
anyone who has lived in Pagosa Country for fifteen years or more how
many parade participants they recognized; you will get a good idea
how this community has grown, how most of us are now strangers. Look
at other participants, though, and you see lifelong residents of
Archuleta County, some in their 90s. Not everything or everyone is
new.

The town was packed. Traffic was nearly impossible to negotiate at
times: the flow of cars, trucks and RVs on the highway was heavy all
week. Crossing Pagosa or San Juan streets downtown was a challenge.

Despite the crowds, the crush, the confusion, the event was a
success.

Read the Cards of Thanks in this edition of The SUN. Many are
directed to the people who made the holiday happen. There is a letter
to the editor that lauds the festivities and Sally is effusive in the
thanks she offers in her Chamber column in The Preview. At a time
when some local entities that used to depend on volunteers for
everyday operations are suffering a drought, mention is made of the
many unpaid workers who came together on the Fourth: the folks from
Rotary who manage the parade; the Mounted Rangers who direct traffic
at events; the many people from the Chamber who helped with the arts
and crafts fair and with the Chamber-sponsored concert and fireworks
display; the members of Pagosa Springs Enterprises and their helpers
who made the Red Ryder Roundup a success and who made sure the rodeo
grounds were ready for the events.

Thanks, too, should go to the paid employees of town, county and
state who worked on the Fourth and on the days immediately before and
after. On July 4, town police worked two shifts to ensure the safety
of celebrants; town employees in the Street, Sanitation, and Park
departments worked during the parade, and the clean-up efforts
following the parade and carnival were outstanding. County sheriff's
deputies were on duty as were Colorado State Troopers.

It is not possible to mention everyone who contributed to the
holiday. It must suffice to note that they are a credit to the
community, whether they are newly arrived or third-generation
natives.

Thanks go to all of them for providing a respite from the
tragicomedy of local politics; from the sometimes dreary and
depressing realities of a community in transition; from the ebb and
flow of demands, friction and complaints that seem to take up so much
space in the average day.

Thanks to many of our neighbors the Fourth was, again, a wonderful
experience - anything but an average day.

Karl Isberg

Dear Folks

By David C. Mitchell

No one does it better than
Pagosa

Dear Folks,

Driving to Durango during the "orange barrel" highway construction
season of isn't one of my favorite things. But when an iMac started
malfunctioning last week it was my job to taxi it to the Apple
serviceman in Durango.

A new logic board was installed in a matter of minutes so I
somewhat felt like a boomerang as I prepared to head back to Pagosa.
As I pulled away from the curb a song being played on a Durango radio
station sent my mind in reverse. Though not accompanied by a "twangy"
guitar or sung with a Southern drawl, the song reminded me of some
unique experiences during the summer of 1951.

Set to enter my senior year in high school, it was decided I
should get a "real" job during that summer. A day or two before
school was out for the summer, Jack Deans, a family friend, called
with an offer. Jack worked for the Better Business Bureau and had a
number of contacts. He also was actively involved in the area's "DP"
program.

For most folks World War II ended in 1945. For the "displaced
persons" from eastern Europe, the effects of the war were still
ongoing in 1951.

Jack knew a carpenter who needed a helper and asked if I'd be
interested. He wanted to be sure I was 17 and that I could use a
hammer. Then his questions went in a different direction. Would I
mind riding the bus to town in order to catch a ride to the job
sites? Could I work half a day on Saturdays? Would I mind working
with a displaced person from Poland? Would I mind if he's a Jew?
Being it was 1951 the final question was saved for last. Would I mind
working on houses that were located in the Negro area of northeast
Houston?

Thus began my education on leveling block foundations of
dilapidated shiplap houses, installing asbestos siding, caulking
wooden casement windows etc. But it was the dark-blue numbers
tattooed on Sammy's forearm that taught me the most important lessons
that summer.

In his early 20s, Sammy had spent most of his teenage years in
concentration camps - the tattoo was his serial number. After being
liberated, he spent four more years in DP villages where he studied
English and learned carpentry skills. He and his new wife had been in
Houston less than year. They lived in "our very own apartment with
electricity, a refrigerator and running water." He faithfully made
weekly payments on his new Ford pickup and he constantly played its
radio.

Partway through the summer Sammy asked if I'd mind working a full
day on the upcoming Saturday - he wanted us to help some friends that
morning and then go on to our job site. It turned out that he needed
me to help him unload some donated furniture and carry it up the
stairs to a garage apartment that was occupied by some recently
arriving DPs.

An elderly couple, both with snow-white hair, greeted Sammy in
their native language and began showing us where to set the
furniture. They too had dark-blue numbers on their arms.

Later that day, Sammy asked me to guess the ages of the couple we
had helped that morning. Based on the similar thin stature and
mannerism of my grandmother, I guessed they were in their early 70s.
Rather than offer a second guess, Sammy turned and said the husband
was 37, the wife was 35. They both were Jewish and had survived the
concentration camps.

It explained why Sammy was always turning the radio dial in his
pickup from station to station until he could find one of the popular
western songs of 1951 - "It Is No Secret What God Can Do." It
explained why Sammy would always sing along. Though the song moved up
and down on the "Top 20" charts, to Sammy it stayed as No. 1. To
Sammy, it was not a song, it was the reality of his life.

Unexpectedly hearing the words of the song Friday morning sent my
mind back to the summer of 1951 and the lessons I learned from Sammy.

Know you are loved and please keep us in your prayers. David

Legacies

By Shari Pierce

100 years ago

Taken from The Weekly Times of July 11,
1901

For years there has been known to be oil in
Archuleta County and claims have been at different times located, but
not until recently has there been much interest taken in the work of
development. Last winter about Feb. 1st an oil company of Oregon
named The Archuleta began work on the Navajo about twelve miles from
Edith, Colo., soon the people of that vicinity became interested and
made numerous locations, taking the vacant land by oil placer
claims.

The 4th of July is over; a very nice picnic
was enjoyed. Old and new neighbors shook hands and the young people
shook their feet. Supper was enjoyed on the grounds, followed by
fireworks and dancing. A perfect time.

Pagosa Springs was a busy and exciting place
for three days during the Fourth of July celebration which began
Saturday noon and the festivities did not cease until the close of
the dances on Monday evening.

During the past year Mail Carrier A.M. Gasaway never missed a day in covering the route by motor truck  a record over the Yellowjacket divide in winter.

Miss Lucille Clay has been compelled to
dismiss her school in the Blanco Basin temporarily, and is planning
to go to a Durango hospital for the removal of her tonsils.

The county truck and five-ton caterpillar,
which were broke down, have been repaired and are again back on the
job on the state highway.

50 years ago

Taken from SUN files of July 13, 1951

A fire which started Saturday around noon in
Echo Canyon, was finally brought under control late Sunday night
after it had threatened to become one of the largest fires of the
year. Forest service officials estimate that more than 1,000 acres of
pasture and timber were destroyed in the fire, most of which was on
property owned by W.F. Jackson.

The Forest Service has just completed the
extinguishing of the Devil Creek fire which started over two weeks
ago and Sheriff Ottaway still has three fires on private land which
are dangerous, as well as the fire at the Jackson ranch, which will
burn for some time.

We hope all fishermen will be more cautious
about their smoking with all the fires we are having.

25 years ago

Taken from SUN files of July 8, 1976

The U.S. Weather Observation Station reports
that it was hot this past week, if there was any doubt about it. A
new high for the year to date was set on July 5 when the mercury
soared to a torrid 88 degrees. There were no freezing night. Snow is
just about gone in the high country, stream fishing is very good an
it seems safe to say that summer has arrived in the county.

Some low minded individuals stole several
flags over the holiday. These were flags purchased by the American
Legion and displayed on parking meters in downtown Pagosa Springs.
Anyone having any information about the thefts should report it to
the town police department.

Forest fires have been numerous the past
week, with 11 being reported by the U.S. Forest Service in this
area.

Features

Pacing
Pagosa

By Richard Walter

Life's too short to be stuck in
the fast lane

Speed has come to Pagosa Country.

Well, actually, maybe I should say speed
seems to have increased, taken on new meaning here.

We seem to have become a community of speed
demons rushing somewhat aimlessly toward appointments with the
hereafter.

And despite the huge flows of traffic in the
recent week, traffic that seemingly slowed everything, there were
those whose insistence on getting somewhere fast seemed to obliterate
all sense of highway courtesy.

Speed, the traffic students and planners are
wont to say, causes accidents and accidents often carry with them the
finality of death.

We are always in a rush to get somewhere.
It's a meeting here, a photo assignment there, and quick cup of
coffee with a source across town and then back to the office. We rush
because peer pressure in any one of the businesses in our area says
we need to be there first with the best offer.

We whiz by gardens of beautiful flowers,
failing to admire their beauty or savor their scents.

We barge headlong into situations with which
we are not familiar, sometimes embarrassing ourselves when we find we
had no business forcing our way into someone else's space.

We stand in line at a supermarket or some
other local establishment and chafe when the elderly woman in front
of us has trouble finding her money and wants to chat with the
checker while she leisurely searches every pocket and cranny of her
purse. We frantically look to see if another line is shorter and fret
inwardly when it is not.

On July 4, I witnessed such a scene in a
downtown business. Two clerks were working as quickly as possible to
take care of more than a dozen shoppers ready to check out. When one
decided the lines weren't moving fast enough, he threw his bag of
chips at the rack, slammed his bottle of designer water to the floor
and stormed out with a few not-so-well chosen words about, to clean
it up, his perceived ineptitude of the help "in this hick
town."

At least in this town we are normally
courteous to each other even in the heat of competition for the
shoppers' dollars.

There are those who do a not-so-slow burn
when following a vehicle moving at less than the speed limit or,
perhaps just as often, driving at the speed limit but not fast enough
for them.

They honk, wave and demand space to pass
when, in reality, they really have no demanding deadline to arrive at
a specific destination - just an almighty hurry to get
somewhere.

You've all seen people who scamper, often
even camping out overnight, to be the first in line for tickets to
concerts or sports events, convinced they'll get the best seats in
the house. Usually, they fail to recognize, those seats have long
been gone to those with credit cards and advance reservations.

How do we get off this roller coaster to
nowhere?

A good friend once gave this
suggestion:

"What good does it do to do everything at
breakneck speed if you can't get there right now and you know you
can't because now is fleeting and it just passed you by?"

Now is gone as soon as you pronounce it and
a new now passes just as quickly.

That old friend suggested those in a hurry
try to remove themselves from the turmoil they've created in their
lifestyle, levitate themselves as it were and observe the happenings
from a third-person viewpoint.

If we could look at our impatience with
others from a distance, he said, we'd realize the need for speed is
often a figment of our own imaginations.

"Slow down," he admonished, "and see all the
things you've been missing."

"Too many people," he said, "rush through
life and then find, at the final moment, they've never been
anywhere."

The point is well taken.

How can we enjoy the present if we're in a
rush to get into the future?

How can we live the moment if we don't
recognize its lure and satisfaction because we've already
concentrated on a future moment?

Time passes too swiftly to waste it. Dream
if you must. Dream of a future filled with everything you want and
need. Dream of helping others, of finding a common thrill in
reality.

But don't be caught in a speed-induced
daydream and miss the moment of today. Enjoy it while its there
because it will never come again.

Time is ours to savor.

Let's not lose our current moments in a
headlong rush into the hereafter.

Each of us needs to take time to live with
and enjoy the years we have with loved ones in this American
wonderland. We needn't be wasting our lives as an inconsequential
speed blip on the radar of time.

Oldtimers

By John M.
Motter

1890's: Mad rush to replace old
with new

The Gay Nineties. The federal census of 1890
officially recognized the end of the American Frontier. No remaining
unexplored wilderness. The Industrial Revolution and smoke-spouting
trains had already replaced vanquished Indians and buffalo herds.
Autos and electricity and telephones and such harbingers of progress
won a foothold in the pioneer heart of America, a foothold that soon
enough replaced the heart as the center of all things.

Despite her isolation, Pagosa Country joined
the rest of the nation in a mad rush to replace the old with the new.
And that transition is the focus of this Oldtimer column.

Modernization, disguised as a logging
railroad, marched into Pagosa Country from the south in 1895. The
following newspaper items document that march. Counting cadence was
Ed M. Biggs of the New Mexico Lumber Co.

Newspaper item, July 5, 1895: By the terms
of agreement made between the New Mexico lumber company the former
company will be the sole occupant in the timber belt in the southern
part of the county. The New Mexico company secures the mill at Chromo
and the Biggs company the Lumberton (New Mexico) mill. The latter
will be removed to Chromo as soon as the work at Lumberton is cleaned
up. The mill at the Navajo bridge (Edith) is a huge affair and will
soon be ready for steady running. The commissary for the New Mexico
company at Lumberton and the one at Chromo will be removed to the
large mill and combined into one general store. The railroad grade
from Lumberton to the river is half completed, ties are being
delivered all along the line, an engine has been purchased, and soon
the great industry will be moving along like clockwork.

Motter's comment: Pagosa News editor Daniel
Egger is documenting the entry of big logging and big lumber into
Archuleta County. The railroad line started at Lumberton is on its
way to a community which will be called Edith on the Navajo River. We
don't know the name of the Edith community before Biggs moved in and
named the place for his daughter. We know people already lived there
and had been passing through the place for a long time. At the time
of this news item, a mill existed at Lumberton, another at Chromo,
and the Edith mill was under construction. The Chromo mill was
apparently the first "big" lumber mill in the county.

Newspaper item, July 12, 1895: The steel for
eight miles of track for the Rio Grande & Pagosa Springs railroad
has arrived at Lumberton and tracklaying has commenced.

Newspaper item, July 19, 1895: The railroad
grade from Lumberton to the mill on the Navajo is completed, and
about half the track is layed. Mr. Biggs informed the writer on
Tuesday that it is more than probable that the line will be built as
far as Chromo the present season, and that a preliminary survey of
the entire line to Pagosa Springs would be made in the near future.
There is a possibility that the line will be built next year, if
money matters continue to grow better. The company has fully
determined to build the road via Chromo, being the best route.
Perhaps the News was giving good advice when it advised the settlers
on the Navajo to let the other outfit alone and assist the New Mexico
company in building a railroad to Chromo and Pagosa Springs.

Motter's comment: Biggs has already
purchased much of the timber in the southeastern part of the county.
In those days, timber rights could be purchased from private
individuals without buying the land. Timber and stone homesteads
could also be filed. For a minimal price, an individual could file a
T&S homestead similar to the better known form of homesteading. A
favorite practice of timber magnates was to encourage residents of
all sorts to file T&S homestead claims with money furnished by
the magnate. The magnate would then purchase the T&S homestead
claim for a nominal fee. Under certain circumstance, the U.S.
government granted ownership of land along new rail lines, including
timber rights, to the builders of the lines. All of these methods for
acquiring timber were used in Archuleta County. One consequence was a
federal grand jury investigation of many Archuleta County citizens
between 1900-1910.

Newspaper item, Aug. 2, 1895: The Rio Grande
& Pagosa Springs railroad was completed as far as the Navajo mill
last week (Edith). The New Mexico lumber company provided a free
dance at the mill on Saturday night for all those who desired to
attend. A special train was run from Lumberton to the mill.

Motter's comment. Biggs' first goal in
Archuleta County has been reached, as we learn from these
week-to-week progress reports. What better time to have a shindig?
It's interesting to note that the proposed route is from Lumberton to
Edith, then up the Navajo River to Chromo before continuing north to
Pagosa Springs. The old stage route was from Lumberton to the Edith
area, then across Coyote Park to Pagosa Springs.

Newspaper item, Aug. 9, 1895: Mr. Sharpe, a
civil engineer of the D.& R.G. railroad, is in town. He is here
looking over this end of the route of the Rio Grande & Pagosa
Springs railway. Actual surveying will begin next week. The survey
and estimates will be complete, and it will require two months to do
the work. The route Mr. Sharpe says, is an easy one. It is beginning
to look as if we are going to have a railroad.

Motter's comment: No news excited Pagosa
Springs folks more than the prospect of a railroad reaching
town.

Newspaper item, July 5, 1895: The depot at
Amargo will be removed to Lumberton at once. Pagosa merchants are
removing their freight stored at Amargo as soon as possible.

Newspaper item, July 12, 1895: The D.&
R.G. station at Amargo has been abandoned and the agency is now
located at Lumberton.

Newspaper item, July 19, 1895: The Amargo
depot is now being torn down and transported to Lumberton.

Motter's comment: As Lumberton grew, Amargo
shrank. Now Amargo has lost it's railroad station. The above
information is taken from the stagecoach advertisement in The News.
This is the first official notice that Amargo has been replaced by
Lumberton as the southern terminus of the stage line.

Newspaper item, July 26, 1895: A new engine
for the Rio Grande and Pagosa Springs railroad passed through here
Wednesday. It was an object of curiosity for the railroad boys.
Alamosa Lance.

Motter's comment: The Rio Grande and Pagosa
Springs railroad was the line run by Biggs into Archuleta County from
Lumberton. In years to come, most of the lumber was cut at the Edith
mill. I'm not sure where other mill sets in connection with the New
Mexico Lumber Co. were made in Archuleta County. Logs were hauled by
train to the mill.

Newspaper item, July 5, 1895: Among the most
recent cures at the Springs that came under our notice are the
following:

Andrew Falk came here from Silverton a few
weeks ago with an affliction of rheumatism. On his arrival a little
over a month ago he could not walk, and he was carried to and from
the bath house. Last week he went home, walking from Pagosa Springs
to Durango, a distance of 65 miles. He has no trace of rheumatism
left.

Mr. Shirey of Durango arrived at the Springs
about the same time that Mr. Falk did, limping badly from the effects
of a paralytic stroke. Yesterday he played ball at Silverton.

A bad case of skin disease was that of a
little child of Mr. and Mrs. Wheelan of Pine River (Bayfield). After
a number of baths here, the father failed to recognize his
child.

Joseph Clarke is at the Springs taking his
annual bath. Mr. Clarke is suffering more than usual with the pain in
his ankles.

Motter' comment: The Great Pagosa Hot
Springs have always been the identity nexus of Pagosa Country. Even
the coming railroad could not steal the entire spotlight from the
"Healing Waters." The above news items confirm that the efficacious
waters were still working healing wonders, wonders so miraculous they
sometimes stretch our ability to believe beyond the breaking point.
Joseph Clarke was Pagosa Springs' first postmaster, and maybe first
resident. He was also the local contact for the Pagosa Springs
Company, the first organized developers of the Great Pagosa Hot
Spring. By the time of this news item, Clarke is living in Durango,
from which residence he once ran for La Plata County
commissioner.

Newspaper item, August 2, 1895: Every
able-bodied male citizen under the age of 45 year is required to pay
a road tax of two dollars or perform two days of labor on the public
highways in lieu thereof. By enacting this law the state has
practically reduced wages to one dollar a day.

Motter's comment: How to pay for public
roads has always posed a problem for governments. The method
described in the foregoing newspaper item was common during earlier
years. Some of us might like to return to the old ways in this
regard. The levy seems minimal when compared with taxes collected for
roads today. But then, horses didn't create as much wear and tear as
motor vehicles.

Options in
Learning

Sixth in a
seriesby Tess Noel
Baker

Homeschool movement picking up
momentum here, nationwide

Homeschooling - a growing educational system
whereby parents instruct K-12 students outside of a campus-based
system.

That's the simple definition anyway.

Becoming more specific than that is nearly
impossible because of the variation between families, values, goals
and available curriculum.

A homeschool structure can be something that
looks very similar to a public school, or almost the opposite,
Camellia Coray, a homeschooler and president of the Pagosa Area
Christian Educators, said. To describe only one could mistakenly
depict the wrong image.

For instance, a "school year" can mean many
things in the realm of homeschooling.

"Some people keep to the traditional school
year," Coray said. "What I do is take a week off when I need to. Then
I might add a few weeks in the summer. Really, we feel all of life is
an education. We don't like the idea of taking a break for the
summer."

School may also take place at a variety of
times in the day. Some may schedule chores or a devotional in the
morning before sitting down to study. For older students with
part-time jobs, evening classes sometimes work better.

One thing that most homeschool teachers
stress is "schooling from within," Coray said. That means the parent,
usually the mom, might give verbal instruction to start the day, but
students work independently to learn the material presented.

Challenge ahead

Of course, the decision to homeschool means
surmounting a variety of challenges as a parent - challenges that can
vary from child to child.

Coray said, personally, some of her biggest
hurdles included: sorting out personality and learning style
differences between children, an initial lack of teaching experience,
and developing time-management and organizational skills.

"You have to decide how you're going to
group children together in class," she said. "You've got to be
creative. You learn a lot about patience when you homeschool."

On the other hand, the benefits of
homeschooling fill almost a page for Coray.

"They're not labeled," she said. "You have
the opportunity to get to know your children and have more time to
work on your children's strengths and weaknesses."

Other benefits include: the opportunity to
instill character qualities and discipline when children are young,
build close family bonds, encourage personal responsibility, choose
the curriculum based on individual needs, develop accountability and
provide a strong academic background.

"You teach them how to learn, and then let
them go learn," she said. "Then they can get an education the rest of
their lives."

Social calendar

As far as meeting children outside the
homeschool environment, many opportunities for social interactions
exist, Coray said.

As a part of the Pagosa Area Christian
Educators, her family can participate in some cooperative learning
options, such as bimonthly field trips and Friday School, as well as
at-home lessons. In Friday School, a group of moms come together to
teach classes for interested homeschool students. The courses offered
depend on the individual mother's knowledge and experience.

Homeschool students also take advantage of
Parks and Recreation activities, high school sports, 4-H and church
organizations, among others, Coray said.

"We give them an education that fits well
with their abilities and interests and then put them together with
youth that challenge them," she said. That means introducing them to
youth of all ages and, in most cases, avoiding a situation where
children only interact with peers in the same age group. That way,
older students learn the responsibility of being a role model for
younger children, and the younger group can be challenged to grow by
the older group.

Growth trend

The numbers of parents choosing this option
are undoubtedly growing, and have been for at least three decades,
although historically, few, if any, statistics were kept.

In a 1998 U.S. Department of Education paper
"Homeschoolers: Estimating Numbers and Growth," by Patricia M. Lines,
it's estimated that between 1990-91 and 1995-96, the number of
students in homeschools nationally doubled, or possibly tripled from
250,000-350,000 to around 700,000-750,000.

The figures are based on data on documented
children from 32 states and the District of Columbia. Only families
that have filed papers with the states could be counted,
"representing a fraction of the total," according to the article. The
rest were estimated based on other statistical data.

According to the 1997 publication "Home
Education Across the United States," by Dr. Brian Ray, president of
the National Home Education Research Institute, the numbers of
homeschool students reached closer to 1.2 million in 1996.

Closer to home, the Colorado Department of
Education reported that between 1991 and 1998, the number of
homeschooled students filing with the state rose from 3,339 to
8,590.

Here in Pagosa Springs, Coray, estimated
that about 50 families belong to the group, with another 30 families
homeschooling outside of PACE.

"It's something that's caught on and spread
like wildfire," she said. In fact, it's only recently that children
homeschooled under broader legislative freedoms have grown old enough
to have families of their own, starting a second generation.

Janice Quitmeyer, publicity coordinator for
the Christian Home Educators of Colorado, said the "homeschool
movement" as it stands today really began in the mid-to-late 1980s
when many states enacted legislation to give homeschools the right to
teach their children at home.

Coray said, in reality almost all parents do
some form of homeschooling.

"All in all it's doing homework during the
day instead of night," she said. "Most people don't realize how much
they are homeschooling their own students. It's not so different than
what people are already doing."

Food for
Thought

by Karl
Isberg

Food (except ham loaf) stirs
memory stew

In memory, everything is linked. Nothing
recalled exists without relations, the raft of memory bobs on a sea
of association.

This is definitely the case in our
remembrance of food. Each of us, if we plumb our mnemonic reserves,
can retrieve memories of favorite foods. Attached are our weblike
versions of the circumstances in which the flame of attraction was
kindled - versions constantly remodeled to fit our purposes.

This is the case, as well, for foods we
can't stand.

For example: me and ham loaf.

I've been unable to ingest ham loaf since a
stressful, cold early winter day in 1956 when, following three
heaping portions of loaf at my Aunt Grace's house in Central City, I
repaired to a nearby mine tailings dump to suffer unspeakable agony,
my nearly lifeless, but husky body then carried back to the house by
my brother Kurt and my cousin J.R.

My father, the doctor, said I had the
flu.

I knew better: It was the ham loaf. In my
opinion, the fact no one else who ate it took sick was an example of
divine intervention, and the divine intervener merely forgot to
include me. But, wait, if the divine agent was omnipotent and
all-knowing, how could I be forgotten?

Clearly, the ham loaf was meant as a test, a
lesson, and it nearly killed me. To this day, the memory of ham loaf
sets my digestive system aflutter, causes a precipitous rise in blood
pressure.

Food is one of the most effective mnemonic
devices: tastes, textures, smells stimulate reflective behavior, bend
us back to people, places, situations long gone.

Allow yourself to open up when confronted
with a food fact; see what bubbles up from the unconscious. It's
unpredictable, delightful.

What happens when you smell freshly-baked
bread? Let your mind go, where does it take you? I am at Ruegnitz
Grocery.

How about a roast in the oven - a pot roast
at 325 degrees with vegetables and spices donating fragrances to the
mix?

A chocolate cake, still warm, waiting for
its frosting? My mother appears.

Fresh corn tortillas, frying in lard? I can
almost see my boyhood friend Mark Vigil. His cousin with the long
braid is making dinner in a kitchen on Pennsylvania Street.

Onions on the cusp of caramel-ization? A
roux one degree this side of mahogany?

Curry? Egad, I'm at Anwar's in
London.

The odor of a pub? Or of a great breakfast
joint?

Fresh-brewed coffee?

A sniff of single malt scotch, a Margaux
splashed across the palate? The fermented nuttiness - the
wet-fur-of-a-feral-animal overtone - of a high-grade, brewed
shoyu?

Have you consumed a classic grilled cheese
sandwich lately? Did you focus on the ores the experience pulls from
beneath the psychic surface? Add a cup of cheapo canned tomato soup
to the mix. Anything?

The smell of freshly decanted ginger ale?
The tickle of the bubbles against the nose?

Where does mayonnaise take you?
Herring?

Sardines transport me to the banks of the
Upper Taylor River. It is noon and clouds rise over the mountains to
the west of the high mountain valley. I hear the water; there are
cattle a couple hundred yards away. A pine-flecked breeze stirs the
hot midday air. Uncle Jack cracks a can of sardines and pulls a pack
of Saltines from his pocket. Our fishing poles are on the grass next
to us. My ear hurts where I hooked myself with a yellow-body
grayhackle trying to cast around a pesky willow. The same
associations would flower if I ate Vienna Sausages or potted
meat.

Bolognese sauce, simmered slowly on a stove.
It is warm and humid indoors, bitter cold outside. I'm seated alone
at a table in a little restaurant on Greene just off Bleeker Street.
I haven't eaten in two days. Finally, I've got enough cash together
to go a la carte. One choice, nothing extravagant: maybe a half order
of ravioli, with the incredible garlic-riddled, fleshy and complex
sauce. Then, back to the Hotel Albert to explain to an increasingly
surly manager why I haven't produced the month's rent. A dilemma that
will be solved by a change of locks, not by me.

Double-cooked French fries. Or are they
Belgian fries, or Dutch fries? I'm just past the Red Light District
in Amsterdam, wandering away from the waterfront, hopelessly lost.
Extra-crispy, puffy sticks of hot spud wrapped in a cone of heavy
white paper, dipped in mayonnaise. Who cares where that tacky canal
house is located? As long as the fries hold out, I'll walk to
Rotterdam.

Brown rice. A daffy hippie from the Haight
named Shrinking Violet and her German shepard Steppenwolf. Violet
loves everyone and wants them to be healthy. She marries an
opthamologist.

Roasted goose. I am at the Kid's Table with
my siblings and my cousins, barely able to see over the edge of the
table top to the food before me. My Grandmother Mabel brings a piece
of goose to each child, with a helping of red cabbage and some
herring. Without these additives at the new year, Swedes too numerous
to count will die senseless deaths.

Raspberries. I walk with my Aunt Hazel on
the tram road that goes from the English side of the mountain in
Central City to a place called Castle Rock. Cornish miners planted
raspberry bushes next to the road 75 years before. We carry large
metal buckets and we pick the ripe berries. We eat the berries as we
walk, each one a grenade of flavor exploding in the mouth, nothing
like the tasteless, genetically engineered versions produced for
durability and shipped to the markets. We eat berries for breakfast,
in a bowl, with heavy cream. We finish dinner with raspberry tart and
whipped cream. Hazel lets me help make raspberry jelly and jam. I
stand on a stool at the old heavy stove, stirring for hours, my every
pore saturated by the berrified steam.

Pastrami, knishes, kreplach, chopped chicken
liver, schmaltz. It's the sadly defunct Chuck o'Luck Deli on Krameria
Street in Denver. I watch my beloved friend Pierre inhale a Howie's
Heartburn in less than two minutes. Complete with pickle and a side
of slaw. The sandwich is a monster, a four-inch tower of corned beef,
pastrami and salami, lovingly contained by mustard-slathered dark
rye. A slab of kugel to finish things off. The man was a master
eater.

I cook every night, so I try to break the
boredom with an occasional memory-rich dish - something to make
dendrites multiply and grow, to accelerate the pace of the neuron
circus. I need to compile a list of foods rich in associations to use
as a guide when I shop.

Where to start?

Gobo, cut into thin sticks, simmered in
mirin and shoyu, with a touch of sugar.

Cassoulet.

Pierogi.

Corned beef hash.

Oxtail soup.

Sauerbraten.

Brown sauce, demi-glace.

Kibbeh.

Blini.

Morels.

Gnocchi.

Veal alla Marsala.

It goes on and on. And with each word, each
bite, each moment of preparation, the pastoflashes sparkle on the
brain screen.

Right now, I'm considering baking a whole
salmon, with aromatic veggies and herbs. It reminds me of my friend
Fabby's wedding in 1980. It was her second or third wedding, but it
was a doozie, foodwise.

If I can't get a whole salmon (why would
that be?) I'll try for one of those major-league hunks of salmon
carcass you occasionally find at the market. No head, no tail,
gutted, skin on.

While the oven preheats to 375, I'll reduce
a cup or so of sauvignon blanc in a sauce pan, not too hot, at a
simmer. Into the wine, I'll toss some fresh herbs - tarragon is good,
some basil, a sprig or two of rosemary - as well as a stalk of
celery, a couple of lemons sliced with peel on, minced shallots, a
bit of salt and a touch of white pepper.

When the wine is reduced by more than half,
I'll put the hunk of fish on a sheet of doubled foil, pour the wine
and goodies on the fish and close the foil, folding and crimping the
edges. Into a large baking pan the package will go and I'll bake the
beauty for nearly two hours. I'll let the delectable finny thing
cool, then I'll chill it in the fridge.

A yummy accompaniment will be a mayonnaise,
with parsley, or a standard green sauce.

As I eat, I'll remember Fabby, stubbornly
clad in white, as she took a header down the steps leading to her
mother's garden where minister, besotted groom and well wishers
waited. It was an omen of sorts; the salmon was delicious. There was
a smell of rain in the air and a car drove up and down the street at
the front of the house, "It's a Family Affair," by Sly and the Family
Stone blaring from the stereo.

There are no limits to the recipes, the
dishes, the associations. Memories blow like dry leaves on a lawn.
Nothing is off limits.